Islamorada Offshore Fishing Report
The offshore waters have been exploding with mahi this month. The lack of people in the islands at this time of year make for great fishing as you seldom see a charter boat on any given day way offshore. Its the slow season, not for fishing, but for charters and every other business here.
Every charter we take, are taking good numbers of nice fish. The fish can be located anywhere from 20 to 45 miles out. Every weed line does not contain fish. You need to train your eye to the ones with fish. These will have current, debris and birds. Lots of birds may appear as mahi but they are not. I prefer a few birds here and there.
The tuna bite is very good on the humps but few clients want tuna vs the acrobatic mahi with a marlin mixed in. The blue marlin bite this month has been sporadic as the tactics we use at this time of year are different than the hot months. Marlin are found deeper now and the water column they inhabit is vast. The approach we use is surface chuggers and 2 baits deployed deep. It has brought several hookups and the bait of choice is still a Bost Madeira 55.
Inshore the snapper bite is hot under the cover of darkness or cloudy skies. The prime species to show are yellowtail and mangroves. We have caught a few small cuberas only to release to get bigger. Barracuda have been very numerous from the reef out to 40 miles. You often mistake them under grass matts for wahoo to find they are cudas on the first jump.
This time of year is the transition time. You can catch several species of fish in the same trip, never knowing what comes up from the deep.
With the waters calm and cooler daytime temps it is the ideal time to fish from the "Purple Islands"
The offshore waters have been exploding with mahi this month. The lack of people in the islands at this time of year make for great fishing as you seldom see a charter boat on any given day way offshore. Its the slow season, not for fishing, but for charters and every other business here.
Every charter we take, are taking good numbers of nice fish. The fish can be located anywhere from 20 to 45 miles out. Every weed line does not contain fish. You need to train your eye to the ones with fish. These will have current, debris and birds. Lots of birds may appear as mahi but they are not. I prefer a few birds here and there.
The tuna bite is very good on the humps but few clients want tuna vs the acrobatic mahi with a marlin mixed in. The blue marlin bite this month has been sporadic as the tactics we use at this time of year are different than the hot months. Marlin are found deeper now and the water column they inhabit is vast. The approach we use is surface chuggers and 2 baits deployed deep. It has brought several hookups and the bait of choice is still a Bost Madeira 55.
Inshore the snapper bite is hot under the cover of darkness or cloudy skies. The prime species to show are yellowtail and mangroves. We have caught a few small cuberas only to release to get bigger. Barracuda have been very numerous from the reef out to 40 miles. You often mistake them under grass matts for wahoo to find they are cudas on the first jump.
This time of year is the transition time. You can catch several species of fish in the same trip, never knowing what comes up from the deep.
With the waters calm and cooler daytime temps it is the ideal time to fish from the "Purple Islands"
