May reports and June predictions

Wow! Are the yellowtails ever here!  Mainly at night, but the bite is out of this world!  In the patch reefs we are catching them up to a pound and a half, but out on the wrecks we are getting them up to 4 pounds on a consistent basis.  And to make matters even better underneath the tails on the bottom are lane snappers, muttons and porgies.  Don’t worry too much about the bait for the tails.  It’s more about the tackle you fish with.  You want a spinning rod with 10 to 20 pound test MONO on it and a small jig from 1/32 ounce to 1/8th ounce.  That’s it, you don’t need anything more or less than that.
The mutton bite is on too. On a recent private charter we came up with 9 muttons up to 16 pounds.  We fished nothing but deep wrecks with fresh and live bait.
 
Groupers have been a bit slow.  Now that the water is warming up they are getting pretty hard to come by.
The hot scene offshore is dolphin.  They are biting like crazy everywhere outside of 300 feet of water.  I haven’t seen the Islamorada Lady come in with a catch that was anything less than awesome in weeks!  They have mainly been catching dolphin, but tunas and wahoos have made their way into the box also.
Tarpon is also red hot.  The charter boats out of Robbie’s are getting them on a nightly basis.

 As for predictions, I would expect to see the tails and muttons bite like crazy for the next couple months.   The mangroves will start really chewing at night after the full moon in June  and July, while the dolphin will remain hot until late August.  If you are coming to fish the Capt. Michael party boat make sure you bring your light spinning gear for the yellowtails!

Cubera Snapper on the Captain Michael

Mike and Kelly caught this nice Cubera snapper last week on THE CAPTAIN MICHAEL. Night fishing is really heating up. Come on down and see what you can catch!!   GREAT FISH KELLY

Thats what I call a grouper

Congratulations to Skye Stranley of BLUE HEAVEN CHATERS with this 64 lb black Grouper

The party  boat has again brought in a fine catch for this young man from palm beach county. As he was pulling in a grunt this monster took the bait and the fight was on.

Captain Michael

Big Cobia caught on the Captain Michael Party boat today. Congratulations to Captain Dave he is keeping alot of fish coming over the Rail.

NINE FOOT SHARK

    Way to go ladie's!!!!  2 female anglers on board the Islamorada Lady II with Captain Ron Howell and Joe Saba brought in this 450 pound Bull Shark. It measured 9 feet and took 50 minutes to bring in. The shark was released unharmed but a replica mount will soon be on the wall. What a trophy!!!!!

Big Tarpon Small Boy

Andrew Stokes age 6 pictured above with his !st ever Tarpon!!!!!  He and his father were fishing with Captain Chris King. they caught 2 Tarpon and a nurse shark. Little andrew told me he can't wait to go fishing again.