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By Robbie's, July 6, 2010 7:34 am

First off I would like to mention that we have NO OIL IN THE KEYS from the BP oil spill.  We are fishing, boating, snorkeling, swimming and beach-going as usual.

Now for the fishing report:

Good news and bad news:  The good news is that the mangrove snapper fishing is about as good as it can ever get in the daytime.  The bad news is that if you wait 3 weeks it will slow down and you won’t catch as many fish.  The night bite, on the other hand is still warming up.  I would guess that the fish have about another week before they are in full swing for the night bite.

In the daytime we are fishing patch reefs no deeper than 25 feet and slaying the mangroves (grovers)!!!!  They are swimming right up to the surface and most of them you can watch eat the bait.  Not that you could use one on the Capt. Michael, but you could easily target these fish with a fly rod if you wanted to!  If you are interested in something as unusual as snapper fishing with a fly rod just call the ticket booth at 305-664-8070 and set up a trip with me on the Satisfaction.  I will make it happen!  Not too many people can say they ever caught a snapper in fly!

As for the yellowtails they are biting their butts off too, but I haven’t been targeting them as much as the mangroves for a few reasons… A: mangroves are easier to catch, B: grovers are better eating, C: grovers fight better and lastly you can catch mangroves all the way around the boat instead of only on the back which makes it more fun for more people.

We are catching lots of short groupers, but I don’t think we have filleted one in a week or so.  That’s pretty typical of the summer time.  Snappers are on and groupers are off.  The last sizable grouper was about a 15 pound black off a wreck in 95 feet on a night trip during the full moon.  About the only time groupers really bite at night for us is during the full moon.

As for the offshore scene, the Islamorada Lady II has been slaying the dolphin (mahi-mahi)!  Schoolies, gaffers and slammers, they are getting all of them!  With Capt. Jeff temporarily helping the government search for oil in our waters (there is none!!!!) we had Capt. Carlos Jimenez take the helm and he did a fantastic job.  Capt. Jeff is back now and the dolphin are stacking up on the fillet table.  Tunas are biting too, as well as the occasional wahoo.

The night bite for yellowtails and mangroves will stay hot for another two months, with the next 4 weeks or so being the best.  If you want to fish the party boat for $40 just call 305-664-8070.  If you prefer a private trip on a charter boat for the same fish with less people on board it’s the same number, just tell the booking agent you would like a night snapper trip and they will point in the right direction.

Happy fourth to everyone out there!  We look forward to fishing with you soon!!!

Capt. Brian

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By Robbie's, May 25, 2010 9:07 am

Wow! Are the yellowtails ever here!  Mainly at night, but the bite is out of this world!  In the patch reefs we are catching them up to a pound and a half, but out on the wrecks we are getting them up to 4 pounds on a consistent basis.  And to make matters even better underneath the tails on the bottom are lane snappers, muttons and porgies.  Don’t worry too much about the bait for the tails.  It’s more about the tackle you fish with.  You want a spinning rod with 10 to 20 pound test MONO on it and a small jig from 1/32 ounce to 1/8th ounce.  That’s it, you don’t need anything more or less than that.

The mutton bite is on too.  A while ago I mentioned in a report that if you want to catch muttons all you have to do is get with the Robbie’s ticket booth at 305-664-8070 and they will set you up on my boat.  One group of guys did just that and we did what I like to call a “nuttin’ but mutton” trip.  We came up with 9 muttons up to 16 pounds.  We fished nothing but deep wrecks with fresh and live bait.  It was a lot of fun and we are already planning on doing the same thing again next year!

Groupers have been a bit slow.  Now that the water is warming up they are getting pretty hard to come by.

The hot scene offshore is dolphin.  They are biting like crazy everywhere outside of 300 feet of water.  I haven’t seen the Islamorada Lady come in with a catch that was anything less than awesome in weeks!  They have mainly been catching dolphin, but tunas and wahoos have made their way into the box also.

Tarpon is also red hot.  The charter boats out of Robbie’s are getting them on a nightly basis.

Sometimes I feel like I sound like I relay the idea that everything is fantastic and everything is biting.  I guess I tend to only talk about what you can expect to catch with us as opposed to what isn’t biting well.  Well in the interest of not being misleading or a liar, here we go…   the kingfish bite is absolutely horrible.  If you come down just to catch kings you are probably going to be less than impressed.  The sailfish bite is also pretty much non-existent.  I suppose a few boats are seeing them from time to time but they are basically gone.

So that’s the report from the last week or so… As for predictions, I would expect to see the tails and muttons bite like crazy for the next couple months.   The mangroves will start really chewing at night after the full moon in July, while the dolphin will remain hot until late August.  If you are coming to fish the Capt. Michael party boat make sure you bring your light spinning gear for the yellowtails!

Looking forward to fishing with you soon,

Capt. Brian

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By Robbie's, May 14, 2010 9:43 am

Lately the snapper bite has been getting better and better both day and night.  If you name a snapper out there that we commonly catch I guarantee you it has been more abundant this week than last, and you can expect the same verdict next week.  The mangroves at night have been red hot. Nothing like the main spawn in July and August but it has been very good.  Capt. Ron limited out a few times last week and the week before in 20 feet of water.

The yellowtails are getting very close to spawning.  They all have eggs and “milk” in them when we fillet them and they are getting much more available to our angling tactics too.  The days when the water is very dirty are much more productive, but even when it’s clear we are catching them.

Grouper-wise, both the charter boats and party boat have been catching nice reds, blacks and gags.  As usual with groupers if the entire boat catches two or three it was a good day, so please don’t expect to go out and bring home a bunch of groupers just because I say the bite is good.  A good grouper week is one where we bring in about a keeper a day.

If you plan on fishing with us in the next few weeks I would expect the yellowtail bite to get RED HOT very soon.  Most likely a few days after the next full moon.  They will bite on almost any bait this time of year as long as it’s on a small hook and line no heavier than 15 pound test.  Ballyhoo and silversides are usually best.

The mutton snappers are getting ready to jump into the boat too. This full moon and the three days on either side of it are going to be awesome!  Use fresh ballyhoo and goggle-eye for them fished on bottom on a long leader.

The grouper bite will be about the same as now… a few here and there, mainly reds and blacks. Live baits are usually best but don’t discount a butterflied grunt or yellowtail.

We are creeping up on the hot mangrove season too.  It’s close but not here quite yet.  With the cold winter we had I wouldn’t expect a hot bite until after the full moon in July. When they are biting they eat anything, as long as it’s on line twenty pound or under.

Hope to see you out on a boat from Robbie’s soon!

Capt. Brian

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By Robbie's, April 9, 2010 11:03 am

The reef is definitely changing for the better as we speak!  The kingfish are moving out, but being replaced by yellowtails, muttons and occasionally dolphin (mahi-mahi).  The water temp is now up into the 70′s (finally) which makes the snappers start to think about eating again.  Mark this week as the first week of the 2010 snapper season.  The bite is still pretty slow, but it’s improving better and better each and every day.  It will continue this trend with a MAJOR peak in May and a very strong, exciting June, July and August.

One of the major events of the year for me is the mutton snapper spawn.  You can catch muttons in the Keys 365 days a year, but on a few occasions they stack up together to spawn and the bite is unbelievable.  The full moon in May should be the first big push of spawning muttons this year.  After that the bite will remain good for the summer before lagging off again in the fall.  I look forward to getting out there during this time and filling the box with big “pinkies”.  If you would like to jump on a mutton charter just call the Robbie’s ticket booth at 305-664-8070 and tell them you want to catch muttons with Capt. Brian.  They will do the rest!

At night Capt. Ron on the party boat has been doing amazingly well with mangrove snappers considering the time of year.  He has even limited out a few times lately!  This is really rare in March, but he found a school of fish that are living in Hawk’s Channel feeding on shrimp and he is puttin’ a hurtin’ on them!  Truth-be-told the rest of the night fishing is slow, but in classic Ron fashion he found a light at the end of the tunnel and turned a crummy fishing season into a hot one!

As for the offshore scene the dolphin are just starting to move into the Keys.  They take the spotlight from the sailfish in the spring and hold onto it all the way into the fall.  Look for the Islamorada Lady II, Satisfaction, Fishin’ Pole, Blue Heaven and Contagious to be bringing in coolers full of them from now until the weather cools off in the fall.

Thanks for reading again this week!  If you are coming on the Capt. Michael soon expect yellowtails, mangroves and a few muttons to be caught!

Capt. Brian

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By Robbie's, March 16, 2010 9:25 am

Bottom fishing, bottom fishing, bottom fishing!  Every species that you tend to think about on the bottom is biting quite well right now.  Porgies, groupers, lane snappers, vermillion snappers, mangrove snappers, etc.  The only common bottom target that we shoot for that I haven’t seen too many of is the mutton snappers.  They should be starting to bite a little better now that the water is up 10 degrees from a month ago, but I just haven’t seen them yet. The Islamorada Lady II caught a few nice ones last week, but three fish doesn’t mean the bite is on.  Usually the party boat is a great barometer of the bottom bite because that’s what we do all day long every day, and we aren’t bringing any “mutts” back right now.

Live shrimp have been the hottest bait out there for just about every reef fish you can try to catch.  I have talked to charter captains who say if it weren’t for having shrimp in the livewell they would have come in with nothing.  The sailfish and kingfish bite is so poor that when it’s too rough for the big sportfish boats to get offshore for tunas and amberjacks they are anchoring up on the reef and targeting porgies and snappers with live shrimp.  That really isn’t the typical way of fishing for most Keys charter boats, but with the otherwise poor fishing conditions we are caught in right now they are doing whatever it takes to put a catch together.

I’d like to add a testimony to how strange things are on the reef right now.  There are a lot of fish that you catch on the bay side as well as on the ocean, but then there are others that NEVER stray from one side to the other.  One that we are commonly catching on the ocean side right now which belongs on the bayside is the spanish mackerel.  We catch thousands of cero macks, but rarely ever any spanish out where we fish.  The example that blows my mind, however is the gaff-top sail catfish.  This fish ONLY lives on the bay side in the middle and upper Keys.  I talked with another charter captain out of Robbie’s who swears he caught two of them the other day on the reef while yellowtail fishing.  Basically what this means is that the water temperatures are so messed up and the conditions so unordinary that the whole ecosystem has been thrown for a loop.  It doesn’t mean its the end of the world, it’s just a testimony to what a strange winter this has been.

This next week I would look for the snapper bite to pick up a bit, the kingfish bite to stay basically absent and the groupers to bite well (not that you can keep them for another month and a half).

I look forward to seeing you all down at the marina,

Capt. Brian

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By Robbie's, March 9, 2010 9:26 am

The last report I had given was unfortunately pretty grim.  One thing I believe in strongly is being honest in my fishing reports.  When its good, I let you know how good it is, and when its crummy, although it isn’t as much fun for you to read I tell you the truth.

Fortunately this week I get to give you a better synopsis!  The Islamorada Lady II out of Robbie’s came in a few days ago with smoker (large) kingfish, yellowtails, amberjacks up to 30 pounds and it was all topped off with three mutton snappers up to 18 pounds!!!  Capt. Jeff said they caught the nice muttons on live ballyhoo fished on or near the bottom while slow trolling.

The Capt. Michael got back into the swing of things after a brief mechanical grounding by catching porgies, kings, lots of vermilion snappers, a few muttons and large numbers of groupers.  As stated a hundred times this winter… all of the groupers and “vermies” had to go back due to new state laws.  We will be able to keep both species again starting May 1st.  There has been a lot of controversy over this new rule change, as with any closure to a fishery, but lets all just hope it makes the grouper fishing of the future much better.  Whether you like or dislike the rule you can’t do anything other than hope that it makes our future fishery stronger.

The words “deep drop” mean different things to different people.  For some fishermen deep dropping is 200 feet of water and for others its 900 feet, but whatever you want to call it the Contagious with Capt. Shannon Attales at the helm did great in 300 feet of water on yellow-eye snappers, red snappers, mutton snappers and tunas.  Capt. Brian Cone, the boat’s owner and normal captain was out of town so his mate, Capt. Shannon went out there and showed everyone that Brian isn’t the only great fisherman on the boat.  They limited out on snappers and threw a few tunas on top of them just for good measure.

I would love to give you a night fishing report, but we just haven’t been getting any boats out there after dark lately.  I think that’s mainly due to the cold weather.  I know 55 degrees doesn’t seem like cold, but when you get out there in the middle of the ocean and its blowing 15 knots 55 gets pretty darn chilly.  Fortunately, the weather is getting warmer and warmer every day and the forecast is for this trend to continue.  Historically speaking, the nights should start getting pretty nice starting this time of year lasting all the way through the fall.  The yellowtails should be biting well on the wrecks this time of year… don’t be afraid to call Nancy or Steve at our ticket booth and make a reservation at 305-664-8070.

Hope to see you soon,

Capt. Brian

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By Robbie's, February 17, 2010 7:44 am

Finally, after a long drought of about 3 weeks the kingfish are biting again. We had a great run of them in early January, then they dried up do to dirty water. Today (Tuesday) they finally turned on again in prime form. In fact, the bite this afternoon was as good as you could ever ask for. Amongst gaffing fish and re-tying rigs for people I looked down and saw about a hundred of them right under the boat! Basically every king bait that hit the water got hit. A lot of days you need to present the bait just right in order to get the bite but today all you had to do was put it in the water.This morning we had a real treat when a 30 pound “smoker” king ate a live blue runner on out kite rig that we sometimes fish from the upper deck. After a long battle the fish found its way into our ice box and eventually into many pictures on the dock. Speaking of the kite, this afternoon while we were anchored and catching kings a hammerhead shark about 10 feet long swam around the boat for about a half hour. He seemed pretty disinterested for the most part, until he saw that blue runner hanging on the surface off of out kite and exploded on it!!! We had him hooked up for about 5 minutes before he broke the line. What was really frustrating was that the rig he ate was about 3 feet of heavy guage wire with three treble hooks. He didn’t stand a chance with the wire, but he wrapped the line around his body and his abrasive skin chaffed through the 50 pound test.The other main target that we are finding out there are porgies. We are catching tons of them most trips right now. Whether we fish in 200 feet of water or 15 feet we are getting these great eating fish. A lot of people from the New England area of the U.S. are used to porgies up there and seem to think they are poor table fare. Fortunately, the porgies down here are a distant cousin to the northern ones and ours are far better on the plate. Truth be told, I am out there 6 days a week catching snappers, groupers, mahi-mahi, tuna, mackerel, tile fish, etc. and I would rather eat a porgy than any of the rest.Although we didn’t really capitalize on it on the Capt. Michael there was a good yellowtail bite a couple of weeks ago when the water was super dirty for an extended period of time. A lot of the charter boats jumped on this opportunity due to a slower than normal sailfish bite but I didn’t see any numbers of fish coming in that would justify leaving the good porgy bite that was going on about 8 miles away from where the tails were chewing.

Over the next week I would expect to see lots of kingfish biting in the 100 to 180 foot range and good numbers of porgies and lane snappers coming off the bottom. The yellowtail bite should be better at night, especially close to shore due to the shrimp running out of the bay every night on the out going tides. If you come fishing with us and we target yellowtails and mangrove snappers don’t be surprised if we are fishing within 2 miles of shore. This time of year this is where the snappers are. One key to being successful day after day is to follow the fish when they move, and right now they have moved in very close to shore to eat shrimp.

Thanks for taking time to read my little report,

Capt. Brian

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By Robbie's, January 29, 2010 3:09 pm

Now that the weather has finally warmed up and stabilized a bit the fishing has gotten back on track for us.  As expected in the winter time, the patch reefs are very productive for yellowtails, mutton snappers, mangrove snappers and porgies.  You will also find cero mackerels, groupers, ballyhoos and other popularly targeted species in the patches this time of year.

The term patch reef seems to confuse people from time to time.  It’s basically a local term that defines the small areas of reef that are inshore from the main body of the coral reef.  They are cut off from the reef by sand, making each one similar to an oasis in a dessert.  Every patch out there has it’s own micro-ecosystem with resident fish, corals, eels, etc. and they are constantly having migratory fish move in and spend time on them as well. This makes for a very diverse gathering of species.  Certain times of the year the patches are typically more productive than the main reef.  Winter is a prime example of this.  The ballyhoo and other baitfish move into the patches and everything else follows.

I have caught mutton snappers up to 21 pounds on the patches, groupers up to 30, yellowtails over 6, kingfish over 50 and sailfish up to 80 pounds in these patch reefs ranging from 10 to 30 feet of water.  People seem to have this notion that if the water is shallow the fish must be small.  Well, take a look at the tarpon at Robbie’s Marina. They are in 4 feet of water and they reach 180 pounds.  In my opinion that blows the whole shallow water theory out of the water.  Fish don’t care about depth, they care about temperature, salinity, clarity, cover, food  and mates.

Getting out off the edge of the reef, the kingfish are still pretty consistent.  Every day is a bit different, but most days you can count on catching a few if you hit the right areas.  Live baits such as ballyhoo, cigar minnows, speedos and shrimp are the top baits, but jigs, spoons, crank baits and flies will work as well.  The main thing to remember is you must use a wire leader to protect against their razor sharp teeth.

A key element to winter fishing is the shrimp run.  The shrimp run from the bay to the ocean at night on an outgoing tide.  Some nights the run is light and some nights millions of them migrate.  When you catch one of these busy nights and fish with live shrimp either that night or the next day the fishing is bound to be hot.

The Islamorada Lady with Capt. Jeff Norton has been consistently catching sailfish and kings.  I don’t think a day has gone by in the last month that they haven’t had a sailfish release flag flying after a charter.  9 out of 10 of these fish are coming on live ballyhoo that Capt. Jeff and his mate Joe Saba are netting on the way out to the fishing grounds in the morning.  Bi-catches have been mutton snappers, groupers, yellowtails and jacks.

I prefer the weather in the summer, but the fishing in the winter.  Come on down, jump on a boat and let us show you a fantastic day of rod bending action out of Robbie’s!

Capt. Brian

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By Robbie's, January 12, 2010 3:29 pm

Now that the Holidays have past and the chaos has ended I would like to take some time to update everyone on the fishing in Islamorada!  It’s gotten very cold (relatively speaking) which has all but shut down the yellowtails and mangrove snappers.  They are still out there on the reef, but they are very lethargic and passive.  The water temp is down into the 60′s now which is frigged for a snapper.  I am not saying you can’t catch them, but your time would be better spent targeting something a bit more active, such as king fish, cero mackerels, porgies, or groupers.

The word grouper brings tears to my eyes right now.  For those of you who haven’t heard… The “State” has closed the season on groupers from January 1st through the month of April.  This was a very controversial topic in South Florida for the last year or so, and now it has finally taken place.  Many, many fisherman are in an uproar!  It’s not my place to voice my opinion on the matter here in my report, but lets just say I am not very pleased about the situation.  It’s not that we catch all that many groupers on the party or charter boats, but it is always the big trophy that everyone hopes to catch, and now that hope has been taken away.  In the midst of a bunch of smaller reef fish you always have that chance of pulling up a big grouper, and now if you do you have to throw it back.  Sure, some people are happy catching and releasing, but most reef fisherman are looking to eat what they catch.  The folks who are more into catch and release tend to be bigger fans of back country, flats, and billfishing.  Not to mention, most of the time when you pull a grouper off a deep wreck it dies no matter what from the pressure change on the way up, so now the fish is going to die anyways, but we don’t get to take it home.

Enough about groupers, the kingfish bite hasn’t quite turned on yet, but I am confident that it is right around the corner. I keep a detailed record of what we catch on the party boat every day and highlight the big changes and events.  The last three years in a row the king bite really turned on just after the new year.  In fact, according to my records last year we caught our limit of kings on January 1st in 120 feet of water with 24 people on the boat.  That’s 48 kings!

One less talked about fish that I love to catch is the porgy.  They aren’t very big, but they are great on the dinner table and put up a good fight for there size. These fish are more abundant in the winter time and prefer to eat squid and shrimp. We catch a lot of them on our “chicken rigs”, which are the basic bottom rig we use on the party boat.  When I can I see to it that everyone on the boat has a few of these guys for dinner.  We catch a few different types of porgies, including the jolthead, whitebone, saucer-eye and sheepshead porgy.  The sheepshead porgy is not a sheepshead, even though they look similar.  They are commonly confused.  The saucer-eye is the largest of these nifty fish we catch, I have had customers catch them over ten pounds!  We call these big guys “hub-caps”.

If you get a chance to break away from work come on down and thaw out with me and the rest of the guys on the Capt. Michael and Islamorada Lady II!!!

Capt. Brian

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By Robbie's, November 19, 2009 1:25 pm

The past week was full of excitement on the reef!  We had everything from sailfish, to snappers, to gail-force winds, all in one week!  Just before the winds picked up the snapper bite was unbelievable.  The yellowtails were chewing like crazy no matter where you went on the reef or wrecks near the reef.  Day and night the ‘tail bite was hot.  The best bait is always live shrimp, but they are by no means necessary to catch nice fish.  Ballyhoo cut into strips about an inch long is one of my favorite baits.  Squid can work well too, as do silversides (small bait fish available at most bait shops) and small pilchards.

The mutton snappers were biting like crazy too.  We did not get a chance to target them on any deep structure, but we picked a bunch of them up on the reef in 30 to 80 feet of water while yellowtailing.  We got them on ballyhoo, blue runner filets, pinfish, pilchards and squid.  In other words, they are biting on everything.  Along with muttons, we also pulled a few red groupers off the bottom on the same baits.

Sailfish have been quite plentiful on the reef as well.  Most people don’t think about catching sails on party boats, but this time of year through the spring we see and catch lots of them because they are up on the reef feeding on ballyhoo, houndfish, pilchards, cigar minnows, and so forth.  We caught three of them just before the winds picked up.  All three came on live ballyhoos.

After the winds slowed down the water was extremely dirty, making the fishing even better.  I haven’t been able to find the muttons yet, but yellowtailing has been great, the mangroves are biting ballyhoo on the bottom and schools of nice dolphin have been traveling down the edge of the reef.

Thanks for reading folks,

Capt. Brian McCadie