Monthly Archives: March 2009

Over a week of very strong winds has hampered fishing activities. During the week of wind we fished the reef where we could anchor and lay relatively comfortably in rough seas. With off color water and moderate current the reef has been good for Yellowtail with several days featuring very large flag tails, also Amberjack, Cero, Cobia, Mutton Snapper and Black Grouper. We had Shark problems several days, at one point loosing a 25lb Black Grouper right at the boat to a 300lb class Bull Shark. With the wind finally moderating we have a good color change in 240′ to 125′ with good numbers of Dolphin, Sails and Cobia migrating along the change.

Recent fishing trips have offered a mixed bag of action. Ty Warren of the New England Patriots and his family enjoyed a hot bite of Yellowtail Snapper which were lured to the surface with live pilchard chum. Several Amberjack in the 35lb range attracted to the action were also caught and released. We took an evening Swordfish trip to the middle crack on March 17th but failed to get a bite. We fished west of Coalbin bouy with Al Arthur and jumped off a Sail while anchored reef fishing. Several large Wahoo were also attracted to the chum slick which yielded Cero, Kings, Yellowtail and a 26lb Black Grouper. Overall the Sailfishing remains slow.

We have been out fishing almost every day since mid Feb. We’ve had lots of wind and rough seas with a couple days of calm weather between fronts. Fishing has been up and down with some days yielding lots of action from King Mackerel and Yellowtail Snapper while on other days we have struggled either because conditions were difficult, such as too much current or because there wasn’t a lot biting. We had 3 or 4 days of good action on gaffer Dolphin in 200′ and several other days when we caught quality fish off the kite including smoker kings up to 45lbs and Sailfish. Several days we chummed with live pilchards and produced a few Blackfin Tuna and Little Tunney. We’ve also been catching some Mutton Snapper in water depths between 135′ and 175′ There have been some good color changes with modest numbers of tailing Sailfish and Cobia, and I would expect that we will see good action on the color change after the latest cold front blows itself out.