Hello everyone, and welcome back to this week’s report! A great week of fishing here in the upper Florida Keys as the sailfishing was going off early in the week. Slowed down a bit on Thursday, but hopefully the current will pick back up and they will start tailing again.
Offshore – Deep-sea Bite
The offshore bite continues to show promise with more mahi moving in each day. The moon is Friday, so I will bet that soon after she passes it will be game on. The football sized tunas have been getting thicker on the humps too, and there are plenty of AJ’s around there as well. The sharks have even been quite nice so far, but we will see how that ends up. Not much from the sword ledge this week as it has been a bit rough, but once the winds subside, I am sure there will be more reports.
Wreck Fishing
The wreck fishing has picked up nicely this week as the mutton snappers have been chewing pretty good. It has helped that the current has been decent all week for sure, but this moon is the beginning to them getting fired up to spawn. Going to be a lot of nice “pinky’s” caught over the next few moons. Plenty of Kings and groupers around as well on the deeper structures, but remember that you can’t keep any groupers until next month. Grouper season opens May 1st, so you can bet there will be some really nice one’s caught. The permit have been pretty solid on all of the usual wrecks as well, but the winds have made it tough this week.
Reef Fishing
The reef remains as good as it gets with yellowtail snappers, as they continue to spawn, and some whoppers at that. Some really nice mangrove snappers have been showing up as well, although it is a bit early for their spawn, they are already seeming to gather on the shallow reefs.
Plenty to catch out there if you have the vessel to brave the seas safely. The winds are gonna be 15-30 over the weekend, so be safe. Let’s hope the fish bite!
Tight Lines,
Capt. James Chappell
