Florida Fish Report

HORT ATTENTION SPAN FISHING REPORT

WEATHER:  Sunny and hot.  Intensely hot even though the thermometer doesn’t seem that hot.  Mid-to-high 90’s.  Can be breezy in the morning clearing to bright sunshine.  Cover up and bring the hat and sunscreen!

WATER:  Weirdly off-color.  The storm two weeks ago coupled with a huge full moon this week and strong currents pulled up cold green water from deep and water temps dropping 3-8 degrees.   Patches of warm blue and patches of cold off-color water everywhere.  Fishing fell off big time.

FISH HOOKED THIS WEEK:  Dorado, roosters, pompano, wahoo, trevally, jack crevalle, bonito, marlin, sailfish, pargo, cabrilla.

FISHING SCALE (10 being best):  3-4.

THE MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ VIDEO REPORT

THE BIG PICTURE and the REST of the STORY…

In short…fishing sure took a nosedive this last week.  At best, it was OK.  There was some action.  Everyone caught fish.  It’s just that there were few highlights; few large fish; and not much quantity either.

We really had to work hard for the fish.  Captains chased all over and knuckled down looking for spots.  Anglers, kept patient and hung in there.  But, it mostly just wasn’t happening.

Blame it on the storm two weeks ago that turned over the waters.  Blame it on the big giant full moon that usually has little or no effect. I don’t know.  Can’t put my finger on it.

But, this full moon was huge and blazing.  They even had some full moon parties in town to watch the moon!  That’s how big it was.  In the dark you didn’t need street lights.  The moon was THAT bright.  Even when the sun had started to come up, you could still see the moon!

Whether it did or didn’t have an effect on the fishing, it’s difficult to ignore that the ocean currents were unusually strong and erratic.  Or that the water temps dropped 3 to 5 degrees or more with colder off-color water patches everywhere.   That great summertime blue water was hard to find and was replaced by dirty green cold waters.  Often we could see schools of fish like dorado or even marlin and sailfish and they just weren’t interested in eating!

So, the bite was really off and sticky.

Just a few dorado.  Not much in billfish although one client was asleep holding the rod when a sailfish hit and pulled the rod right outta his hands.  Several of our captains saw the fish bounding away with the rod and reel unfortunately skipping behind the fish.

But that was it.  Some big huge bonito…some big jacks…a few good patches of nice cabrilla, pargo, trevally and a little jag of wahoo for the first time.

Roosterfish…hmmmm….

We’ve had a spectacular roosterfish season. But, this past week, nothing really noteable.  Mostly 5-10 pounders.  A few of the 20-40 pounders, but that was it.  I don’t want to say the roosterfish season is over, but maybe ALL the fishing was off.  Or maybe…the roosterfish season is over!

Here’s the deal…

This is still the Sea of Cortez.  This is still La Paz.  This was an off-week.  I just want to be honest.  No sense in blowing smoke or sugar-coating things.

But things turn around.  It doesn’t stay bad.  I’m grateful to all our guests who hung tight with us this week.  But by the time you’re reading this, things might have already started to rebound.

Fingers crossed!  We’ll keep you posted!

That’s my story!

Jonathan