Webmaster's Note:
Due to numerous emails about the "practice of Dolphin fishing" I would like
to make the following clarification.
The fish we are referring to as dolphin, as it is called in the Keys and
south Florida, is a fish, also known as the Dorado and
Mahi-Mahi. This is not the Dolphin mammal.
Keep up
with Florida Keys fishing!
Enter Your
Email Address
below to have this fishing report sent to you each week!
We never use email
addresses for outside purposes.
|
Last
Updated: 08/29/2017
Quick Glance
Provided by staff writer Captain Russ Pellow
visit him online at
www.RustyIV.com
Captain Russ also answers questions in our Ask The Captain Forum
Check it out!
|
|
Offshore: |
|
Bluewater fishing for Dolphin has gotten even
better in late August. There are still plenty of school Dolphin to
be had and they are better size lately. There are also more gaffer
and slammer size Dolphin to be had. Captain Chris on the Dog House
out of Whale Harbor Marina had a great day on the Dolphin with a 36
pound Bull. Captain James Chappell on his Catchalottafish charter
out of World Wide Sportsman Marina had a 40 pound Slammer to his
credit one trip last week. The Floridian out of Whale Harbor Marina
had a rack of big gaffer size Dolphin with one slammer on Thursday.
Captain Benny Spaulding on the Play baby had family out on a morning
trip and had ten nice Blackfin Tuna in the ten to 15 pound range and
a couple of gaffer Dolphin in the teens in weight. |
|
Reefs: |
|
The Yellowtail Snapper action is still good. It
will be best to fish early before the sun gets too high in the sky.
Look for lots of fun with the Cero mackerel in the Yellowtail chum
slick. Cast jigs on a short piece of #2 wire and work them
erratically. It is time to begin to look for some King mackerel in
depths of 90 to 200 feet of water. The Charterboat method is to slow
troll live baits deep. One other method that will also produce King
mackerel as well as many other species is to deep jig. Using a two
ounce bucktail jig, crush and limber a Ballyhoo and fix it to the
jig using three hooks in tandem on the jig. Free spool the offering
down and then jig it back to the surface. |
|
Gulf and Bay: |
|
Out to the west the bay is producing great action
on Mangrove Snapper. Drifting the grass lakes and dredging a jig
through the foliage on the bottom will make for a great bite of
Snapper. Some just use a twister tail and others will fix a Berkley
Gulp bait to the jig. No need to chum, as the Mangrove Snapper are
simply voracious in this hot water. The Trout may surprise you and
join in, but the Trout are far and few between in most areas other
than in the very northern area of the bay. There will be some
willing Tarpon and Sharks in the channels along the banks near the
Yacht Channel. |
|
Flats, Backcountry and Flamingo: |
|
Some guides are fishing the mainland shoreline
and island moats with good action on Snook and Baby Tarpon. Captain
Gary of Ivory Keys charters has been getting into just such action
this past week on Pinfish and Pilchards. There is good action on
Tarpon in the evening in many of the channels in the Islamorada
area. If you have a full day to devote to fishing run out to the
Cape Sable area and be ready for anything. Along the beaches and in
the canals and creeks there will be Tarpon, Snook, Redfish, Drum,
Trout and lots of other rod bending fish such as Jacks and Ladyfish. |
|
|
Last
Updated: 08/29/2017
Capt. James Chappell's Fishing
Report
Provided by Catchalottafish Charters
visit him online at
www.Catchalottafish.com
305-803-1321
|
|
|
Hello everyone, and welcome
back to this week’s report! It’s been another incredible week of
fishing here in the beautiful Florida Keys! The weather this week
has been a little touch and go with all the tropical weather that
has been moving around, but the seas have mostly been nice. The
fishing has been solid with the Mahi action still going off! Plenty
of Mahi’s around offshore and the Humps have been on fire with some
solid Blackfin’s too. Some Pilchards finally showed up in the local
canals, so we have been able to catch enough bait to do this for an
hour or two in the mornings. Nice size ones at that ranging from
15-25 pounds on the live bait. The feather tunas have been decent on
the troll and vertical jigs with a few AJ’s mixed in here and there.
The Swordfish Ledge has remained on the quiet side this week, but
rest assured this is going to turn on any day now. There are some
fish being caught, but nothing over 60 pounds that I have heard of.
The deep dropping was pretty solid all week, but the past couple of
days the current has been smoking so it is difficult to say the
least. We caught some really nice Snowy Groupers, and Blueline
Tilefish this week, but we had to work at it for sure. The deep reef
and wreck fishing has had its ups and downs this week with the
Mutton bite being on the slow side. The good news is that there have
been some nice Groupers and Cobia showing up in these areas. Plenty
of Jacks and other stuff to stay plenty busy with, and as usual tons
of Bonita and plenty of Kings. A really good variety out there on
the deep reef and wrecks to be had right now. The shallow reef bite
with Yellowtails and Mangroves continues to be decent even as the
water has increased in temperature. The reef from 90’ to 30’ is
still pretty good, and doesn’t look like it is going to slow down.
The current on the reef has been pretty good the last couple days,
and has really slowed down the sharks, so this is a good option for
a short day over the weekend. The weather this weekend is looking
pretty good on the wind forecast, but who knows what is going to
happen with the rain. As of now, the forecast is calling for
“scattered showers and thunderstorms”, but I am sure this tropical
activity coming over the Bahamas will be the deciding factor. Time
will tell on this one, but if the weather permits the fishing should
be good. Well, that is it for this week! Have a safe weekend
everyone!
Tight Lines,
Capt. James Chappell |
|
