Weekend Forecast

Hello everyone, and welcome back to this week’s report! The weather this week was pretty nice, as the wind didn’t show up until later in the week. The forecast for the weekend is windy, around 15-20 knots out of the East to Southeast, so this might make some trouble for the smaller boats. The fishing this week has been really good until the end of the week, as the mahi bite has slowed and the weed lines have seemed to disappear. Not a lot of fish out there for Thursday, so we will have to wait and see what the weekend brings. Hopefully there is a new batch of weed coming from down the line. There are some fish out there, but they were very far and few between. Most boats were catching 8-15 fish, so not hopeless, but much slower than the days before. The Swordfish bite remains slow this week as the moon approaches, but with the wind forecast the way it is through the weekend, I doubt too many will be taking advantage of the moon phase as we are only a few days away. Technically, it should get better, but if the conditions don’t allow, then it is what it is. Deep dropping has been solid this week with lots of Tiles, Groupers, and Black Belly Rose fish. The current has slowed a bit inside of 20 miles, and has made for more conducive conditions for these guys. The humps have been good with AJ’s, Blackfin Tuna, and Sharks as usual so if you can get out you can count on this. The deep wrecks and ledges were decent this week as well, but the sharks are absolutely horrible. Good numbers of fish were lost this week to the tax man, but we did manage to make lemonade out of these guys so that was fun. The reef remains good with nice Yellowtails and Mangroves, and the Cero Mackerel have been showing up nicely. Also, the King Mackerel numbers have definitely been increasing, so you can begin to target these guys if you choose with no issues. Some Sails around this week around the reef and offshore, and it appears that by the number of “accidental catches” it could be something to think about under the right conditions. Not the “best” time of year for these guys, but we did have a pretty solid condition last September so who knows! Anything is possible! Bait has been OK around the patches and on the reef, and the Pilchards have only been decent around Tennessee Reef, as they haven’t shown back up in Islamorada yet…on the ocean side anyway. Oh…I almost forgot…there has been a decent bite of Wahoo on the troll between 200′ and 600′ this past week as several boats have been targeting and catching them. Some nice one’s too up to 60 pounds so give this a go and you might do ok. I do have to say that this was when the weed lines were thick, but who knows! Well, that is it for this week! The weather is going to be a bit rough this weekend, so be safe everyone!

Tight Lines,

Capt. James Chappell