Dry
Great success on all fronts down here in Islamorada!! The weather was perfect all week and the fishing conditions have improved even more. Spring has finally made a strong appearance. The ocean and backcountry waters have managed to work themselves back to normal temperatures. The fish and surrounding life is getting ready for their spawning period, which brings great action. Migration patterns are getting ready to move in full swing. This is my favorite time of the year….change is good!
The week was full of great fishing! Capt Clyde on the Pretty Work had very good success with the 3lb Yellowtails along with a few real nice Mutton Snappers and some released Groupers! He has also found a good pick of King Mack’s all week and had several in the 20 pound range. The Whale Sharks started to move up the reef edge this week and some had a few Cobias on them. Capt. Clyde found a nice 50 footer and managed to pick a couple 35lb Cobias off with live grunts. The fishing has become very strong. With all that cold this winter the fish have had enough I do believe. They sure are hungry!! Still we have found ourselves using plenty of live shrimp and cut bait. The Live bait has still been hit or miss as they just can’t seem to get settled down in any one spot.
Whale Shark
Capt. Andrew and I on That’s Right had a great week ourselves. We started out local and found the same results with the Yellowtails. However, we did spend several days in the Dry Tortugas this week and found the action to be top notch!! We started out just off the Bank with winds holding a steady 15 knots out of the ESE and water temp’s 74 degrees. The Amberjacks were, well let’s just say ‘SWARMING”, with fish up to 70 pounds. The bite was so good we had to leave several spots just so we could get bait to the bottom, LOL. The variety of fish we caught was amazing; we had several different types of Snappers, Yellowtail, Mangrove, Muttons and Dogtooth. All very delicious on the grill! The Grouper bite was also pretty good. We spent a little time on the Gulf side and fished a small barge wreck and it was lit up!! Being that Grouper are open on the Gulf side we were excited to finally catch a few Nice Red Groupers that we could keep!! They like the Jigs and even caught some on chicken rigs, crazy!! Then we had a real nice surprise with a 30 lb Black Grouper which decided to eat a small Ladyfish we had lying on the bottom on a 20lb spinning outfit. We also found a couple nice African Pompano that gave the guys all they could handle on the light 10lb tackle!! Overall the trip was lots of fun and very productive, we came home with the coolers full and plenty of smiles.
Nice Black Grouper
African Pompano
The weekend turned on us with the winds picking up and making the reef edge very rough. Both That’s Right and Pretty Work did manage to get out and found ourselves doing well with the Snappers and again a variety of Mackerels. The outlook this week is okay. We have some NE winds 20 to 25 and this causes the waters to get very rough so we shall see. Might be a good push of Sailfish!!
Capt.John Oughton
cell 305-481-6527