Well with our first slammer dolphin a nice 40lb bull caught by Chad Londos on his birthday, and plenty of schoolie dolphin to be had we can officially ring in the new season. We have been finding dolphin regularly for the last two weeks and with the temperature rising and the water getting warmer I expect it to only get better. On the reef the warmer water have really sparked up the Yellowtail snappers and mutton snappers great catches have been fairly regular. We have even been able to combine our trips catching some snappers in the morning and then heading offshore for a few dolphin in the afternoon. We had a great run of the larger tunas at the hump last month fish ranging from 20 to 35 pounds which for the black fin thats large. We fish for them on 20lb spin tackle so it makes for a great fight. Unfortunately you can not predict when the tunas are going to show up and usually it is short lived so if you here when it happens congrats and good job it must have been your day.

Well here we are cold front after cold front which can only mean one thing, it’s cold. With the cold comes lots of bait down the reef edge, which in turn brings lots of predators like sailfish , kingfish, wahoo, tuna and the ocassional dolphin (mahi mahi). On the killer White we have seen all of the above so far and I am looking forward to a great winter of fishing. We have loaded up our bait pens with goggle eyes and pilchards and are ready to fly the kites. We are not fishing any tournaments this year so if you would like to fish with us this winter shoot me an email or give us a call we are wide open.

Well it’s mid June and the dolphin or mahi mahi fishing has yet to let up, we are catching plenty of schoolies with a few bigger fish mixed in. We have also had lots of success with deep dropping for snowy and yellow edge groupers as well as tile fish and rose porgies, these fish are all caught in 400 feet or deeper. On the reef the yellowtail snappers are biting very well giving us a great opportunity to reach our limit.

Yes folks summer is here, it might not be considered summer according to the calender yet, but we are starting to see large schools of Dolphin or Mahi Mahi whichever you prefer rolling through migrating to the Southwest. So put on your cowboy hat and lets get ready for the Dolphin rodeo. Like to say thanks to the Baldwins for a great weekend of fishing which did include a 170lb daytime swordfish which I am sure they have been and will be enjoying at the dinner table for a long time to come. May 1st also marked the opening of grouper, yaeh we can catch grouper again and we started off with a nice 20lb black grouper on the second along with some great yellowtail snapper fishing.

Hello fisherman! What a weird year for the weather. I have never seen it so cool during the spring. However, it is rather comfortable and rather nice not to have to run our air conditioners full time.

Fishing has been good, even though I am hearing from my customers and inquirers that we are struggling. On the contrary, I haven’t talked to anyone that has had a bad day over the last couple of months. The King fish have been here in large numbers allowing just about everyone to catch their limit, starting off their day. We are also beginning to see bait, like cigar minnows and ballyhoo showing up which is definitely going to make the reef come alive.

The clean blue water has pushed in, thanks to the east wind, so we can say good bye to the nasty green water that has been lingering. There were several Whale Sharks spotted cruising the outside edge of the reef this week. What an awesome sight these big giant fish are. They run an average of 20 to 25 feet long and almost always have fish with them. They are like large slow moving debris full of bait, promoting larger predators. Usually in the shallow water they have Cobias around them which were the case this week, giving several boats a great opportunity to catch some really nice fish.

We have had a lot of success on the reef, fishing for Yellowtail and Mutton Snappers. We were fortunate enough to find some larger 3-5 lb Yellowtails and a handful of Muttons ranging from 6-12 pounds. Usually, while we are anchored up on the reef catching Snapper, and if the conditions allow, we will fly a kite. This allows us to present a couple of baits out away from our chum slick, and targets the surface eaters, like Sailfish.
Here’s to keeping the rods bent……

Hello fisherman and welcome all you spring breakers to the Keys! Hopefully you all will leave the cold air up north where it belongs and allow us Floridians to thaw out.

Out on the water this week, we took advantage of the calm conditions and did a lot of deep water fishing. We found the Jacks have moved in to spawn, because every wreck we dropped at had either Greater Amberjacks or the better eating Almaco Jacks on it. One thing you can count on with Jacks is that they will put up a great fight from the moment they are hooked up till they hit the deck of the boat. This is what has earned them the nickname of ‘donkeys’, because that’s exactly what it feels like you are hauling up from the bottom every time you hook one of these big guys.

We were using live baits, either pilchards or cigar minnows; however butterfly jigs seemed to be working as well. If you were able to keep your bait away from the Jacks for a moment, there were definitely a couple of Mutton Snappers to be had. There was also some good action on the chicken rigs; we were catching some really nice Yellow eye Snappers out in 300 to 500 feet of water. What’s a chicken rig you ask? It is a way of fishing multiple hooks on one line without getting tangled up. We use them mainly in shallow water, but in the deep it gives you a better opportunity to catch a couple of fish at a time with less work.

Out at the Islamorada Hump they were catching some nice Tuna’s in the 8-25 lb range. There were also some big Amber Jacks caught, when you could get them up through the sharks that is. We had a cool opportunity last week to get up close and personal with a very large Hammerhead. He ate our Amberjack in half and then followed the head up to the transom of the boat where my deck technician, Daniel, reached down to pet him. It was a pretty cool sight.

On the reef there was a pick of Yellowtail and Mangrove Snappers. If you put your time in you could put together a good catch. Lots of Grouper were caught as well, and even though they have to be released, they are still fun to catch.

Here’s to keeping the rods bent . . .

Well spring is here, and the wreck fishing has started out pretty good. We have had no problem keeping anglers busy catching deep water jacks and snappers.
We had a really cool experience last week on the Islamorada hump, while fishing for amber jacks we had the opportunity of a life time. Daniel grabbed the leader and started to pull the fish closer tot he boat well at the same time a rather large hammerhead shark was eating our amberjack. On the first bite he cut the fish in half and obviously that wasn’t enough for him, he turned around and followed the rest of the fish to the boat. I yelled down to Daniel pet him and like that he reached over and started to pet this huge 500lb hammerhead. It was probably one of the coolest things I have seen out there on the water.

Congratulations to the Killer White and her crew for their win in the final event of the season, the Islamorada Women’s Sailfish tournament. On day 1 we were in second place with one fish obviously a slow day of fishing we saw one and caught one. Day 2 was a different story we were 8 for 11 by noon and never saw another fish the rest of the day, still good enough to win by three fish. Our top angler was Ocean Lee she is 3 months pregnant and a hell of an angler this was her third time fishing this tourney and first time winning very cool.
March is right around the corner and that is when our offshore wrecks are real good fishing. we catch lots of Mutton Snappers Almaco Jacks and Amber jacks along with other great wreck species.

A tournament started by Julie Olson and Capt. Don Gurgilio back in 1990, the Lodge Presidential Sailfish Tournament was dubbed the ‘presidential’ because president George Bush used to stay at the Cheeca Lodge when he came down here to Bone Fish every year. There were 7 boats in that first tournament, and this weekend there were 28 boats. Big congratulations to the winners and everyone who was able to fish in such a fun event.

This coming week has two one-day tournaments; the Al Flutie Over The Hill Tournament for anglers over fifty, which I’m very excited to be fishing my father in, and the IFC, which is also the last tournament in the Gold Cup Series. Just a piece of information for you, any one of our local charter boats are more than qualified to fish these tournaments. If you want to get out there and see what all the excitement is about, get to the docks and book your favorite boat. I guarantee you’ll have a great time.

It seems like the bite of King Fish has slowed down a little this week. You were still able to catch a few or even your limit; you just had to work at it a little more. There are also lots of Cero Mackerels on the inside edge of the reef, especially when the water gets stirred up in the heavy winds. Ceros are a great fish to catch on light tackle and they make great dinner fare. They are actually one of the best eating Mackerels out there.

With the dirty water inside the reef there have been good reports of Yellow Tail Snappers being caught as well as Muttons. I’ve also heard of many catches of the new version of Grouper, the catch and release version. Although still fun to catch it’s just too bad you don’t get to keep one to eat. Think about that the next time you order Grouper at your favorite restaurant during the closed season. Where is that Grouper coming from?

On the Gulf side of things, fishing was very slow this week until Friday. As the water warmed up, a good Trout bite developed slot and over size fish too. As there were all the Spanish Macks out there you could want, the key to those fish this week was fishing in 10 feet of water or deeper.

Here’s to keeping the rod bent . . .