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Hooking Up Anglers Since 2011.
It was a busy weekend here this Labor Day with many of our islamorada offshore charter boats getting out. The highlight of the past week has been the "blackfin tuna blitz"! We had a lot of calm weather the past week and all of the boats that tried were able to catch live bait (mostly pilchards). After loading up the livewells with over 500 live baits (which can take a little while in the morning, so have some patience), most of the boats headed offshore to the "humps". The "humps" are large underwater sea mountains that come up over 300' from the bottom. With the Fall being one of the best times to live bait tuna fish, it was the best bet for action early in the day. The boats throw live chum over and get the tunas busting on the bait, jumping out of the water right near the boat in a feeding frenzy, and then put the pilchards on the hook and cast into the frenzy. We use light spinning tackle, so even the small and medium size tuna give you a great fight! Most of the boats were averaging anywhere from 10 - 20 blackfin tunas mixed, anywhere from football size (3 - 10 lbs) , with a handful in the 15 - 20 lb range as well. There was also some big skipjack tuna mixed in as well. The mahi bite has been fair at best the past week. A few days ago there was literally hundreds off fish caught by the boats, but only a very small percentage were legal size schoolies which we could keep. The deep water bottom fishing (300 - 600') has also produced a few blueline tilefish, vermillions snapper, and rose porgy's lately. The reef has still been providing plenty of action with yellowtail snapper and a few mutton and mangrove snappers too. Yesterday The Gon Fishin V put out a couple live tunas for bait hoping for a blue marlin, and within an hour they hooked the fish they were after! The fish was caught and released after an hour long fight and estimated in the 250 - 300 lb range. Today on the Bn'M II we went 1 for 2 on swordfishing, catching one around 65 lbs. I think the tuna bite will continue both by live baiting and trolling this coming week, and we have plenty of boats available for private charters , so give us a call and get out while it's not too crowded! 1-800-742-7945
Capt. Nick Stanczyk
This Fishing Report was submitted on 9/3/2013 4:36:19 AM by Seamus and last updated on 9/5/2013 4:36:19 AM.
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