Weekly Fishing Report Written By Capt. James For Florida Sportsman, and The Online Fisherman!

Hello everyone, and welcome back to this week’s report!  The weather this week has been pretty nice, with a little wind mid-week (nothing crazy), and the fishing has been great!  Offshore the Mahi bite is finally feeling like it is in full swing with some great numbers of fish around and nice size one’s too!  Almost everyone venturing out the past couple days has filled the box with as many as they wanted, so hopefully this will keep rolling!  The Swordfish Ledge has produced a few whoppers this week, with a fish topping the 400 pound mark, and a few other in the 200 pound class I heard of as well.  Blackfin Tunas on the humps have been good, and if you have the livies, then the big boys will play.  The Tax man will be trying to eat them, but if you bring your “A” game you will win a few audits.  There are still pretty decent numbers of Jacks around the humps too, not swarming, but definitely enough to get some bites.  The deep dropping offshore has been good as the current has been a little slower inside of 500’.  You can only keep one tile and snowy, but they are there and are biting.

The wrecks and deeper ledges are doing well right now with some really nice Muttons and Groupers.  These fish have been biting best after the tide change, and have been biting both dead and live bait.  We have spent the past 2 days fishing for these guys and have done very well on the deboned ballyhoo as well as pilchards.  There have also been some other characters in the area like AJ’s, Almaco’s, Bonita, Sharks, and a lot of Genuine Red Snappers.  If they would only open the season for at least 2 per boat, it would enable a few to be put to good use.  It is very hard to vent some of these fish due to the depths we fish sometimes, but we try and make sure each and every one swims back down healthy.  Maybe someday the Atlantic will get an opening on these guys.  

The reef has been good this week with the Yellowtails still willing and able.  Some Cero Macks have been making their presence known on the flat line, and a few Kings as well.  The Mangrove fishing is getting stronger as they have been eating the bottom rod and mixed in with the Yellowtails.  Plenty of action all around, and some great fishing this week here in the beautiful Florida Keys!  Stay safe everyone, and good luck this weekend!

Tight Lines,

Capt. James Chappell