"Offshore fishing report"
by Capt. George Clark, Rodeo Charters, www.rodeocharters.com
1-305-522-2638

October 10, 2008

The Mahi are starting to get back to normal. Lately the dolphins have really been on a mission to eat every small fish in the ocean. The only problem with that is there has been a tremendous amount of food for them. Even small patches of grass have held tons of tiny bait fish and migrating dolphin are using them like drive in windows, stopping off to grab a snack then continuing south bound. Look for any areas where the Sargasso is pushed together and watch for bird activity there.

Like I said though, these fish have easy feeding opportunities and may not like what you offer them. I would take some time to either catch a few live baits on your way out or even purchase a few at your local bait store.

Another thing to note is make sure you bring several types of bait ranging from squid and Bonito to even live shrimp and pilchards if you can. It never hurts to have a buffet when fish get finicky. Another trick which gets lethargic fish fired up is throwing buck tail jigs in front of traveling fish and working it as fast as you can. Try an ounce and a half blue and white hook up lure jig with a sliver of a belly strip and you can't miss.

We have also been finding a steady supply of skip jack tuna and black fins also. Work around 250 to 300 feet with a spread of small lures fished way back and you will get bites for sure. Reef fishing on the other hand has been ok too.

YT snapper are steady while grays are doing very good at night. Find the hard bottom in 50 to 60 feet and burn some oily chum. The grays are swarming after dark and range from 2 to 5 pounds on the average.

Back offshore, I have had several reports of hungry bill fish. Capt. Martin Formento had a double Blue Marlin this week. One fish ate a schoolee dolphin they were winding in while the other blue piled on a trolled rigger bait. One fish was 400 pounds and ate thru the smaller leader pretty quick but the other fish was 200 pounds and they were able to get a release after a lengthy fight. My mate Erik Wantuk was out with his father and family and also enjoyed a good fight with a chunky white marlin. So don't count out the bill fish right now either. Get out there and enjoy the weather.

Tight Lines,
Capt. George Clark Jr.

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Key Largo Fishing Report - October 8, 2008
by Capt. Jim Mulcahy, Fins & Feathers charters , 305-453-0088

The deep drop fishing off Key Largo has been outstanding the last two weeks. Fishing the bottom in depths ranging from 600 to 850 feet. off Key Largo, my crew and I on Fins and Feathers charters have been catching Golden Tilefish up to 35 lbs., Snowy grouper up to 40 lbs. , Blueline tilefish, and roseperch.

The Gulf stream current which usually runs 3 to 4 knots to the northeast has slowed to about one knot. This is allowing us to keep our baits on the bottom without being pushed up by the usually fast current. We like to use 4 hooks spaced about a foot apart on a long leader with a 7lb. weight on the bottom. Since light doesn't travel much further than 300 ft we put a battery operated light on the leader.

The bait of choice is usually cut bonito strips, squid, or barracuda chunks. This type of fishing isn't for everyone, since the depth were fishing requires us to use electric fishing reels. That takes the sport out of it but if you like to eat what you catch than this is just the ticket for you. Whatever you catch off the bottom in this depth will taste great. The groupers and tilefish off Key Largo have excellent white meat with great flavor, probably because of the deep cold water and there diet which usually consists of crustaceans and small fish.

My anglers, John Melton, Sean, and Mike fished with me on Saturday. We headed straight to the deep spot and on the second drop we brought up a 35 lb. golden tilefish. What a beautiful fish with all of its neon yellow spots. Then it was time to run to the grouper hole in 600 ft.

We found a piece of debris on the way to the spot and caught a dozen dolphin which were swimming around the structure. Two of the fish weighed over 15 lbs. The grouper spot was also productive catching 2 Snowy groupers, the biggest weighing 35 lbs.

While targeting the bottom fish it is a good idea to keep a surface bait out just in case some mahi-mahi swim up. This can usually pay big like last week when a big school of dolphin(mahi-mahi) swam up to us while we were deep-dropping. There were probably 30 fish in the school and we caught 26 of them up to 20lbs.

There were wahoo around also, and we caught three of them. This time of year we do not catch as much dolphin as we do in the summer, but while we are bottom fishing there is always a chance to get lucky off Key Largo. We are waiting patiently for the first cold fronts to start arriving which will push the Sailfish from up north down to the Florida Keys. We will probably start seeing this push late October into November.

So get ready, the Sailfish are on there way to Key Largo!!

Tight Lines,
Captain Jim

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