Over Under Weekly Fishing Update

ISLAMORADA FISHING REPORT

Wow what a wet and wild week for us down here in the Keys!! We started out this week with lots of wind once again...not quite as bad as last week but just enough to keep us on our toes. We had real nice catches of Yellowtail snappers as you see from the pictures, along with a few nice schoolie Muttons up to 10lbs. The king macks are still biting not sure for how much longer now that the water is moving up into the high 70’s. We also had a few Sailfish in the latter part of the week.

A real nice color edge moved into about 175’ along with some SE wind and NE current made for perfect conditions. We also have started doing our Swordfish trips with great success. The first night we got one bite and caught one about 200 hundred pounds. The current was rolling pretty good so it did make things pretty tough on the drift about 2 knots too much so we had to use a lot of lead which is not all that good, makes it harder to keep bait at proper depth.

The next day we made three drops during the day. Hooked two...caught none...pulled the hooks on both fish...bummer. However, the night allowed us to have even more success. We had two more bites...caught one after about an hour fight and we boated him. This one we kept, as a matter of fact we are all going to be at the house tonight enjoying a little Swordfish on the Barbie!! I felt that with a little less current we could have been more productive but either way things worked out real well.

The bait of choice for us is squid of coarse and small Spanish mackerel’s deboned work real well. We use 250lb leader and a verity of hooks depending on the bait we use and the size of the bait too.

The backcountry has really started to shape up nicely; the Tarpon have started to move in. Capt. Jeff has done a few night trips this week and has started to have some success with several bites each night and a few catches. He has had a few jump off and a few more caught and released, the fish are only about 50 to 80lbs, now but within the next two weeks he tells me we should start seeing the 100 plus pounders. Now that is something to look forward to!

Stay tuned and hopefully we will have another good week as the outlook is great!!

We'll have some more yellowtail & swordfish pictures up for you some time tonight so check those out too!

Capt.John Oughton

- THAT'S RIGHT
cell 305-481-6527

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Bahamas Fishing - Abacos Fishing Report

Starting the Spring Change here in the Bahamas

March through April remains to be one of my favorite times to fish in the Bahamas and sometimes the hardest. We consistently say April 1st is nearing the end of the wahoo season and start of the dolphin, yellowfin and billfish season. However, it is usually in April that we catch some of our biggest hoos. This makes it a tough decision on a daily basis over here. This time of year you must follow the wind direction, current and tides. It is a constant battle for about two weeks over here to decide weather to put the wahoo weights in or out. For this I usually say follow the wind. If you just had a cold front pass and the wind is from the NE I usually stay on the edge and put the wire out. However if you have had a strong Southeasterly flow and it almost feels like summer then go off the edge and take the weights out. We like to also follow the water temp as you can see the temps rise from 72 to 75 as we have had this week. When it was 72 to 73 this week we wahoo fished and when it warmed up we started venturing off the edge. I like to usually go with a gut feeling for the day and decide what to fish for. By April 15^th or so we typically put all the wahoo lures and tackle away. This remains one of my favorite times to fish as you never know what you may catch.

This week was very tough as we did get offshore twice this week. We did a little of edge fishing as well as venturing offshore for one of the first times of the year. Needless to say it was a tough week this week as we had a very unusual west wind most of the week. West winds are very unusual at any time of the year and are usually accompanied by very slow fishing. We did manage to boat a nice late season hoo being 65 lbs. That fish ate a deep rod with a blue black Yozuri plug. We also ventured out to the Abaco Canyon this week after a morning of slow fishing on the edge. When we got out there we saw nice blue water and the water temp was around 77 degrees. We were hoping for an early season billfish but managed to get 3 nice dolphin in the 20 to 30 lb range.

We are expecting a strong late season cold front this week and expect one last hurrah for our wahoo bite. It seems we will keep the wahoo weights in the water for another 5 or 6 days until the wind changes from the NE. We are hoping to get our usual late season monster hoos at the end of this front so stay tuned!!!!

Captain Joe Trainor - LOW PROFILE
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