ISLAMORADA FISHING REPORT
Wow what a wet and wild week for us down here in the Keys!! We started out this week with lots of wind once again…not quite as bad as last week but just enough to keep us on our toes. We had real nice catches of Yellowtail snappers as you see from the pictures, along with a few nice schoolie Muttons up to 10lbs. The king macks are still biting not sure for how much longer now that the water is moving up into the high 70’s. We also had a few Sailfish in the latter part of the week.
A real nice color edge moved into about 175’ along with some SE wind and NE current made for perfect conditions. We also have started doing our Swordfish trips with great success. The first night we got one bite and caught one about 200 hundred pounds. The current was rolling pretty good so it did make things pretty tough on the drift about 2 knots too much so we had to use a lot of lead which is not all that good, makes it harder to keep bait at proper depth.
The next day we made three drops during the day. Hooked two…caught none…pulled the hooks on both fish…bummer. However, the night allowed us to have even more success. We had two more bites…caught one after about an hour fight and we boated him. This one we kept, as a matter of fact we are all going to be at the house tonight enjoying a little Swordfish on the Barbie!! I felt that with a little less current we could have been more productive but either way things worked out real well.
The bait of choice for us is squid of coarse and small Spanish mackerel’s deboned work real well. We use 250lb leader and a verity of hooks depending on the bait we use and the size of the bait too.
The backcountry has really started to shape up nicely; the Tarpon have started to move in. Capt. Jeff has done a few night trips this week and has started to have some success with several bites each night and a few catches. He has had a few jump off and a few more caught and released, the fish are only about 50 to 80lbs, now but within the next two weeks he tells me we should start seeing the 100 plus pounders. Now that is something to look forward to!
Stay tuned and hopefully we will have another good week as the outlook is great!! We’ll have some more yellowtail & swordfish pictures up for you some time tonight so check those out too!
Capt.John Oughton – THAT’S RIGHT
cell 305-481-6527 –
