Fishing Reports

The fishing has finally picked up. Large amount of sailfish, dolphin, blackfin tuna and snapper have made a strong showing. Offshore the sword fishing is picking up as well.

Fishing has been so good I haven’t had much time to report.

Offshore-the sail fishing is quickly picking up as the cold fronts appear and is on fire during the coldest days. Dolphin are being caught on every trip as are kingfish and skip jack tuna.

Sword fishing remains very consistent with multiple fish days, that is if you can find a day that is not too rough to fish.

The mutton snapper bite has also been very good in 90-100 feet of water.

The Fishing is simply on FIRE!

The bonita are everywhere with 50-60 fish caught per day on flies, light tackle and dead bait. They respond very well to chum and most can be caught on the surface.

There is also a great mix of blacken tuna available on the deeper parts of the reef which readily take a trolled feather fly and love of dead bait.

Sword fishing remains very consistent this week with several bites a day and many caught fish.

If you wan too catch ALOT of fish now is the time.

I have good news and bad news…The bad news is that fishing on the reefs has gotten a little slow. The bonita have been hard to come by but the bottom fishing for snapper has been good although very hit or miss.

The good news is that the daytime sword fishing has REALLY picked up. Most boots are getting several bites a day and landing 1-2 fish per day. There has also been some very large dolphin offshore on the swordfish grounds which readily take live or dead bait.

Snook fishing on the beach has also been picking up and becoming quite steady. We have some rough weather in store for the next few days so if my log book holds correct after the weather settles down the fishing should be FANTASTIC.

Now is a great time to book a trip.

Stay Salty
Grant

My second favorite time of year has officially arrived! (my first favorite time of the year is mid may when we have loads of big kingfish and dolphin) Currently the fishing is hot hot hot and so is the weather.

If your a fly fisherman this next sentence should have you diving for your nearest fly rods…the Albies are HERE! Head offshore to 90-120 feet with a few boxes of dead glass minnows and chum like crazy. You will see the bonita eating the glass minnows within a few feet of the boat. Throw just about any fly and you will hook up. You really only need to be able to cast about 10-20 feet and your fly will be in the strike zone. The bonita have been hitting clouser’s, gummy minnows and crease flys very well but any baitfish imitation will work. I strongly suggest fishing an intermediate sinking line and beefing up your tackle to at least an 8/9 weight rod or above. You can absolutely catch these on lighter tackle but with the amount of sharks around, the more you play the fish the better chance a shark will eat it. it is not uncommon to hook 20 fish but only 5-8 due to the shark problems. Using heavier tackle will increase your odds of landing fish.

If you do find yourself with a lot of sharks around the bite…MOVE! the sharks will not go away if there is chum and bonita int he water. Move the boat and start chumming again..the pelagic will find you.

Mixed in with the albies have been large black fin tuna, king fish, dolphins and the occasional wahoo.

For you non fly fisherman there has been excellent snapper fishing on the reefs from 75-90 feet with limits of yellowtails, muttons and mangrove snappers.

Inshore the snook fishing on the beach has been getting better as well. Pre-dawn there has been schools of bait right on the beach with snook, jacks and lady fish mixed in as well. I recommend throwing a 7/8 weight intermediate line and a 15-20lb fluorocarbon tippet to any baitfish imitation (chartreuse and white work best for me).

Fish before work, after work, during work whatever. Just go fish!

Grant