Fishing Report

Dolphin fishing out of Key Largo has been a little hit or miss this week. We're finding that most of the fish are in 300' to 450' off Key Largo. Mostly schoolie-size with a few gaffers and slammers mixed in. The football-size Blackfin tunas are starting to make there appearance as well. These strong fighters are alot of fun on standup 20lb. spinning tackle. We usually like to troll 4 lines keeping the baits far back as the tunas can spook easily from the sound of the boat. On days that are cloudy and breezy the bite can be spectacular, hooking three to four fish at a time. Key Largo and Islamorada seem to be right in the middle of the path of these fish as they make their migration through the area, which lasts through the fall. Yesterday, we started trolling in 200' and it didnt take long till we had a double header tunas on. After we landed those we started to hit the dolphin pretty good, catching 40 dolphin that day. We didnt have much time to tuna fish, but we did manage to catch half a dozen of them. We havent been doing much bottom fishing lately, but the guys I know say there catching the yellowtail snapper in 60 to 80 feet of water mostly in north Key Largo. Were starting to see more Swordfish trips running since the weather has become more reliable and we should start getting some reports from those trips real soon. It's nice to have calm weather when were Swordfishing in Key Largo, since we have to make the 20 mile run offshore to the Swordfish grounds. Live Bluerunners and dead squid make up the most common spread. We usually like to drift five to six lines each at different depths from the boat. Three of the lines are tied with balloons with lights attached, and the other three are fished right under the boat. Drags are set lite in the beginning as the Swordfish bite is often suttle sometimes not even taking any line on the bite. In some cases the fish grabs the bait and slowly swims to the surface, but when the pressure is put on him then look out, you could be their for hours fighting the fish. The longest time we fought a Swordfish was for 8 hours and we did not get him. He finnally broke the line. 5 1/2 hours is the longest we fought one and caught. 350 lbs.

 We are also seeing an unusual amount of Sailfish in Key Largo for this time of year. Four days ago we raised 4 fish and caght 2 of them. These fish are normally scarce this time of year so we do not target them, however I have been seeing alot of them freejumping in the waters off Key Largo. We decided to fish for them that day after seeing so many of them. It payed off.