ISLAMORADA FISHING REPORT

Early this week, That's Right ran a half day Islamorada Fishing Trip with a great group from Cheeca Lodge. Getting a real early start with anticipation of lots of action, it didn't take long, starting with bait. We came tight on the anchor and I turned around to see the cigar minnows and sardines eating out of the chum bag. It took three throws of the 14' cast net and we were done, lots of fresh live baits! We took a ride down the reef edge, passing by Alligator Light, right off of Bud n Mary's Marina in Islamorada. Seas were 2 to 3' with a light breeze out of the northeast and plenty of current. Unfortunately, the current was running the wrong way. It was south by southeast, so this made the conditions for the sailfish poor. Fortunately, even with conditions not what they had been the previous couple of days, we managed to hook a double header of Keys Sailfish right off the bat. Then, the Big Smoker Mackerel took over. We had a blast on 12lb and 20lb Penn Spinning tackle. The bigger Kingfish can dump half a spool of line on you, cool stuff! I don't think we had a fish under 15 pounds, and several between 25 and 35 pounds. Anthony was jumping around like a grasshopper, belly hooking the bait, flipping them out, counting to 10 and then; "got em on"! It didn't take long for the customers to get in the game and catch on to the whole Mackerel Drill. After we limited out on Kings, we slid inside the reef to 35 feet of water, and anchored up. We caught Yellowtail and Mangrove Snappers. We caught enough, so that everyone had what they needed for dinner that night at Cheeca Lodge, and we called it a great morning and ran back into Bud n Mary's!

Tight Lines, Captain John Oughton - THAT'S RIGHT

NEW BIG GAME & OFFSHORE MARINE STORE

Over Under Adventures is now pleased to be able to offer our customers all the quality products we are using on a daily basis. Please think of us next time you are buying anything from Penn, Kristal, Revere Safety Gear, 3m, Baldwin, Berkley, and many more. Fish Lights, Cast Nets, Deep Dropping Equipment, and Offshore Trolling Baits. These are just some of what we have to offer!

New Over Under Video Now Available Online!

Michelle has been working on this great photo album highlighting all our fishing destinations, crews, boats, and some of our great catches. Take a peak and see if you made the cut! Thanks to everyone who contributed pictures to the video, and if you have a great picture that didn't make the cut, send it to us, so we can be sure it's in the next one!

Over Under Videos - Click to Watch!

OVER UNDER DESTINATION PREVIEW: ISLANDER RESORT FLORIDA KEYS!

The Islander Resort is a unique destination in Islamorada, Florida with accommodations designed in a vintage 1950's style. These villas enhance the charm of this tropical island resort, inspired by the classic elegance of Florida Keys accommodations. Nestled among the palm trees on more than 25 oceanfront acres in the village of Islamorada, the Islander Florida Keys Resort includes 114 spacious rooms that are a friendly retreat for the business and leisure traveler. All villas are ground level with parking close by. All sorts of stuff to do here at this awesome Islamorada Vacation Resort. Pool, Bars, Restaurant, Super Views of the Atlantic, and right in the heart of downtown Islamorada. Walk to restaurants, the Bass Pro Shops, Islamorada Fish Company, Cheeca Lodge, etc. The Islander has one of the few beaches in the Florida Keys, and it's a pretty darn nice one. The Islander has been gracious enough to provide Over Under Adventures with discounted room rates for all our guests, so give us a call for your Islamorada Fishing Package today! Four Day Fishing Packaged trips start at less than $1000 per person!

MOREHEAD CITY GIANT BLUEFIN REPORT

The boat arrived in Morehead City last Saturday. On Wednesday we started prepping the boat for fishing. After working the crew to a near mutiny, we finally got our first trip in Saturday. The morning was filled with optimism. We pulled out at 4:30 AM, and started fishing the"Big Ten" "Little Ten" area. On board today was our mate John Griffith, Phil Knapp and Connie Cahalane. After catching and releasing four or five birds that were crushing our long riggers, we worked our way to the north east. At around 11:30 on our way to the "Knuckle", we got our bite. We fought the fish for about 1.5 hours, and after working out some kinks, John got a dart in the Giant and we had it boat side. The fish was 89 inches, 346lbs, and cored out at 291. All the prep work was rewarded with a great start for the Pretty Work crew. Thanks to all at Portside Marina for their hospitality and help they have always treated us well.

Tight Lines, Capt. Keith Burnet - PRETTY WORK

BAHAMAS FISHING UPDATE

Wahoo Bite: With limited weather windows to get out, we were only able to fish for pelagics once this week. On our only day out, we had an excellent Wahoo bite with 4 hook ups at the end of the falling tide in front of Man O War cut. We went 3 for 5 on Wahoo. None of the Hoo's were larger than 25 pounds, except of course, the one that got away. One of the Hoo's in the 40# range spit the hook right near the boat. We have found the 30 to 80 pound Hoo's get their second wind near the boat! Everyone knows the feeling. It's always a bummer to have a fish so close, only to watch it swim away. That Hoo will be out there for us next time though! Another Wahoo report came from our friends on Cat Island. They have been doing extremely well with the Wahoo and boated a 91.3 pounder this week. Talking with Randy and JR at Hawks Nest, we all agree how much colder than normal it is this year. We're all hoping it continues, because it seems that each passing cold front gets the fish going better and better.

Bottom Fishing: While the Pelagic fishing was hampered by the wind, we were able to do some bottom fishing. The yellowtail fishing is very productive here in the Abacos. The reef systems of the Abaco Cays are superb, and far better than anything I have experienced in other parts of the Islands. We have been told that the barrier reef system of the Abacos is the third largest barrier reef in the world. We are trying to perfect our yellowtail spots, looking for the coral heads and depth ranges that produce the largest tails. We're working a lot of structure and getting a good feel for the reef. We are releasing most of the tails, only keeping the ones that swallow the hook and would end up being barracuda or shark food. Needless to say, the dock masters at Orchid Bay on Guana Cay have been eating well. While tailing, we have been dropping some grouper bombs and larger baits out for Muttons. We have managed to bring in a few Groupers and Muttons, but would have liked to have seen a couple more that lodged themselves in rocks! Next week we plan on trying some deep dropping.

Tight Lines, Capt. Joe Trainor - LOW PROFILE

RIGGING CORNER: CEDAR PLUG DAISY CHAINS

We caught our first Wahoo on our cedar plug daisy chain this week. Our chain is always out run way, way, way back, in the shotgun position from up on the bridge. All species of pelagic fish love this lure. It's especially easy to run, since the lure rarely snags weeds. We build our chains in two sections, to be easily fixed. In the first section, we use 6' of 130# mono. About 4'down, slide on a crimp, and then crimp it on the mono to act as a stopper for the first plug. Then string on a blue and white cedar plug so the crimp stops the plug. Going to the end of the first section slide another blue and white cedar plug and crimp on a 130# Spro swivel. The second part of the chain is take 2' section of 130# mono ended with a Mustad 10/0 Needle Eye Hook. Slide a natural cedar plug down and crimp the second section to the swivel at the end of the first section. When sharks, cudas or wahoo end up cutting off or damaging the chain, it is almost always the last section that gets wrecked. We always have full spares ready to go, but usually all you have to do is crimp on a new natural plug (trailing lure), as opposed to re-rigging the whole chain. The chain of plugs seems to attract fish much better than the single plug. The downside is that sometimes toothy critters will attack the plugs ahead of the hooked lure, leading to cut offs. This is a risk we've decided to take over the years, as we catch so many more fish using the chains than singles. We do buy our cedar plugs in bulk quantities though. Usually 100 at a time! So expect to lose some, it's just part of the game over here.

Here in the Abacos, we run our cedar plug daisy chain on a Penn 50 rod and reel combo, with a wind-on swivel. The sharks are less of a nuisance here than down in the Southern Islands. When we are fishing San Salvador and Cat Island, we usually run our chains on a Penn 70 rod and reel combo with a 250# Spro snap swivel, due to the shark problem. You only have so much time to work a fish in those areas before the sharks move in. We use the 3 minute rule. If your fish isn't in the boat in 3 minutes, you are at risk!

Captain Joe Trainor