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Hooking Up Anglers Since 2011.
We've had our first real cold fronts this winter the past week here in Islamorada. This morning temperature was 57 degrees. Last Friday and Saturday was the Cheeca Lodge Presidential Sailfish Tournament. The first day the weather was awful with lots of rain, a strong south wind, and even some lightning in the storms. It was a very tough bite the first day, with half the boats never catching a fish! However the second day was better with the fishing and the weather. The Wet Dream/Catch 22/Hey Papa team didn't get a sailfish bite the first day, but the second day they caught and released 6 sailfish, which tied them for 1st place, but gave them a 2nd place finish because the other boat released their last fish first. Congrats to all the winners!!!
The sailfish bite has been fair overall, some days almost all the boats get in on the action with alteast a couple shots, but yesterday was very slow and no boats released a sailfish. It will always be "fishing", so don't think that anything is a guarantee. The king mackerel bite has been improving, with a few big "smokers" over 30 lbs hanging up. There's still been a couple wahoo around, but they are more of what I consider a "bonus" fish. Sure we had a great couple days on them about ten days ago, but everything lined up right with the blue water and current on the edge of the reef. Conditions and water color change on a daily basis and you need to keep that in mind.
On the wrecks we've still seen a couple african pompano caught as well as some nice mutton snapper and amberjack. The boats anchoring down have been catching plenty of fish for dinner including yellowtail snapper, mangrove snapper, porgy, yellowjack, and a couple hogfish. I think once the wind settles we'll see some more cobias caught as well. I went offshore 20 miles one day and did some "deep dropping" in 650' of water. We caught a handful of gorgeous queen snapper and also ran to the hump and caught a handful of "football" blackfin tunas.
Give the marina office a call at 305 664 2461 to book your next Islamorada fishing adventure.
Capt. Nick Stanczyk
This Fishing Report was submitted on 1/19/2016 2:31:05 PM by Seamus and last updated on 1/20/2016 2:31:05 PM.
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