 |
Upper Florida Keys & Islamorada
Capt. Izzy Donatiello
January 31, 2002
Islamorada - Saltwater Fishing Report
Over the past week, the fishing action has been very good. We started off with a group of anglers from fort Lauderdale. they were in from California in search of an Atlantic Sailfish. We caught our bait at alligator light and head off shore. We slow trolled the Northhole without any takers. I set up again in an area to the west of the light; we weren't fishing long before we had a sail to the boat. another hour of fishing produced another fish up but we missed him. We made another move to Tennessee light. We had some action with small kings which we released and two 6 pound dolphin for dinner.
I fished a regular customer of mine in from Ohio. We headed back to the Gulf for some Spanish Mackerel fishing. We ran almost 8 miles west of the Springer bank marker before finding clean water and the fish. We had good action until the current died; keeping 3 six pounders for dinner. We also released a small permit. On the way in I stopped at a bombhole; live pinfish produced a couple of 2 plus pound snappers that we also invited for dinner.
On Tuesday the 22nd, I fished Richard Jones and his son Harry from the UK. I again traveled to the gulf. It took two drops to locate the fish, but they cooperated. They caught a lot of mackerel, bluefish and a 29 inch Kingfish all released. An interesting sidelight was that Richard tried his home technique of backreeling to fight the fish. the first fish hammered the jig the reel spun backwards hitting his fingers..so much for backreeling.
Thursday I fished three retired gentlemen from fort Lauderdale. The wind was up blowing almost 20 kts. They want eating fish so I fished the shallow patches. The first patch was devoid of life. The second spot were the water was a lot cleaned produced some action. There were fish in the chumslick, and ballyhoo were behind the boat. It was very uncomfortable due the strange wave action. I had them sit down and began catching fish. I caught some ballyhoo. They produced three keeper Mutton snapper to 10 pounds, a 3 an a half pound Mangrove snapper, a handful of 14 inch yellowtails and a dozen Mangroves. We released a lot of short red black and gag groupers and a 8 pound Jack crevalles.
On Monday the 28th, I fished Mike Kissel and two of his friends all from Vineland, NJ They wanted a sailfish. We had a very hard time catching Ballyhoo. We spent over an hour and three throws of the net to catch only a dozen an a half. We found a great current edge in 135 feet of water and put out our baits. The boat next to us caught a Dorado, but we had no action. We ran another 5 miles to the West, the radio indicated the sails were popping up in 110 feet of water there. We set up again. After only a half hour both the downline and right rigger baits were hit. We loss the deep one, but the rigger one started jumping behind the boat. After 15 minutes as I was leading the sail along side; the hook pulled perfect release. We only had two baits out when a second sail eat the same rigger bait. This one came to the boat easily and we removed the hook and released. Small kings moved into the area and were cutting us off. We move about a mile to the East. I slow trolled in the 95 to 125 foot range. A man-a war bird came up behind the boat and a third fish was on. This one got tail wrapped and put up a some show. We finally got him unwrapped; cut the leader and he too was released. We headed in and were back at the dock at 3:30 ; so they could make their 8 o'clock flight back home.
Give yourself a treat. Book a trip with a full time pro; call1-800-3202753.
Izzy
More Fishing Reports:
|
|
|
|
