Hello everyone, and welcome back to this week’s report! A pretty good week here in Islamorada, with some nice weather (it is super-hot), but some decent fishing. Offshore fishing this week had a little pick up in it from the moon, so it was mostly what we expected. Seems as if the mahi fishing is getting a little better each day. Still good numbers of smaller fish around, which is really weird for this time of year, but it is nice to see they are “making” new ones! The tunas on the offshore humps continue to thrive, and should only get bigger and better. No doubt the sharks are going to be a consistent issue, but this is just part of it. You will catch the larger tunas if you can chum them with live baits, but you can catch the smaller tunas on the roll or the jigs. You will get lucky every now and again and catch a big one on the latter methods, but live bait catches big fish consistently in these areas so keep that in mind. The offshore ledges produced a few swords this past week as well, and like I said last week expect this fishery to only get better as we move through toward the end of the year. Reef and wreck fishing this week had some highs and lows. Mangroves really fell off last week, but there are still a few around. Yellowtails were biting early in the week, but seemed to be a bit tougher toward the end due to lack of current. The muttons and groupers were biting sporadically with the current/ tides, so find some moving water and you should be good in the deep. Well, that is all for this week! Check back next week for a new report and let’s be safe out there. Looks like the winds are going to be fine over the weekend, but it looks like some rain may be running around so we will play this by ear! Be safe and see you next week!
Tight Lines,
Capt. James Chappell