Fishing Report

Summer time fishing in Key Largo has arrived. The annual migration of Mahi has begun and we have seen some excellent days of fishing off of Key Largo. The last five days of fishing have been outstanding catching our limit (10 per person) each day with some fish reaching the 40lb. mark. There have been alot of schoolie size mahi in the 5 to 10 lb. range with a few 15 to 30 pounders mixed in through the day. We have found most of these fish 10 to 15 miles offshore under birds working the surface eating what the mahi are chasing up to the surface mostly flying-fish and small jacks. Once we spot the birds from a distance we run to them and using light tackle spinning outfits sightcast into the school of fish. This is an exciting way to fish since you can usually see the fish swim up and take your bait. It is common to see up to 50 fish in a school together.

  We had a very good day a couple of weeks ago with one of my good regular customers, Mario from Miami. The beginning of the day began with some deepdrop fishing in 500ft of water for snowy grouper and rose porgy. The conditions off of Key largo were excellent with calm seas and light current. As soon as our baits were hitting the bottom we were instantly hooking up to nice snowy groupers in the 15 lb. range. After catching our limit of grouper and porgy we decided to try for some mahi. We found a nice school of schoolie-size mahi and caught 10 fish. After looking a bit longer we found a floating piece of debris. There were many mahi swimming around the debris which acts as a home to baitfish that attracts the mahi and other predators. We caught 12 more mahi up to 30lbs. That ended a great day of fishing off of Key Largo.

    Last weekend We fished the Coconuts Dolphin tournament in Key Largo. The seas were rough but we did manage to catch some nice mahi. In two days we had 12 fish averaging 15 to 20 lbs. with one topping the scale at 42lbs. Capt. Dawn Mergelsberg's team fished with us and she was nice enough to write the following report about the two days from the tournament,

   Coconuts Dolphin Tournament May 2010

    2nd place Sunday-5th place overall

Capt. Dawn brought her fishing team down from Miami for a holiday and the 24th annual Coconuts Dolphin Tournament. Although she didn't fish because of rotator cuff surgery, Capt. Jim took out the boys for the 2 days. It was tough sea conditions but the boat was spectacular according to her team and the boys had a great time, and caught some mighty nice mahi and even collected some winnings $$$. Capt. Jim and first mate Chris showed there true proffesional standards and the team can't wait to come back next year. Celebration at the awards ceremony was a fun time for everybody.

Capt. Dawn Mergelsberg

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