OU – Islamorada Fishing Updates and Information

[OU Sportfishing]

We will be using this thread to keep everyone updated on everything going on in Islamorada throughout the season. If anyone has any questions about fishing in the Florida Keys, just post them here and we’ll be sure to get them answered for you. Also, keep an eye here for split charter opportunities and on the water seminars throughout the season. Thanks for following OU!

[OU Sportfishing]

1st Live fishing report out of Islamorada, FL with Captain John Oughton with Ladies Let's Go Fishing Club!

Capt. John reports tough going on the reef this morning, with bait scarce. Moving off to look for a sailfish this afternoon with the Cigar Minnows they've caught.

Here's John's summary of the day...listen in here!

[Over Under]

South Florida Sailfish Action Heats Up

Things are certainly starting off with a BANG here in S. Florida. You know it’s good when we are catching them in Lauderdale, Islamorada, and Key West all on the same day! This is shaping up to be a great season for sailfishing here in South Florida. The sails have showed rather early, so come catch ‘em while they are here! We certainly have the area covered, with the ability to reach the fish from Palm Beach, all the way down below Key West.

Captain Joe McGivern up in Lauderdale has had quite a hot hand as of late, which is of no surprise. Joe’s been seen on the tournament leader boards quite a bit the last couple years. Capt. Joe’s preferred method of targeting the sails has been with the Kites. Live Goggle-Eyes have been the bait of choice for him this week. As we move on down into the middle Florida Keys, Capt. John Oughton was chasing them around in the sand, sight casting live ballyhoo and cigar minnows to them on Friday. A completely different approach necessitated by different conditions. The sails are up inside the reef in the Middle Keys, pushing ballyhoo up into the shallows. Then back down in Key West, Capt. Ted Lund is also at it with the Kites. Fishing this week on the center console, Ted had his best luck flying the kites using Goggle-Eyes and chumming with live Pilchards.

The sailfish tournament season kicks off this week with the SAILFISH CUP, run out of Miami, FL. Then we have events such as theIslamorada Sailfish Tournament and the SAILFISH KICKOFF just around the corner in December. We’ll be fishing an aggressive tournament schedule out of Ft. Lauderdale this year, and have plenty of openings for anyone who wants to join our tournament team. The tournament season is capped off April 13-17 with the World Sailfish Championship, the grand daddy of them all down in Key West, with a guaranteed top prize of $100,000! We hope to see some of you standing on the winner podium with us this Winter!


Tight Lines,

Captain Trey

[Over Under]

We have a couple groups looking to split charters during the first week of January here in Islamorada. Give us a shout if you'd like to team up on a trip!

[OU Sportfishing]

Just in....realtime audio report from Captain John Oughton on That's Right out of Islamorada, FL. Two hours in and already two sailfish bites, some muttons & kings.

We'll update this as the day progresses.

Check it out here....Islamorada Fishing Report

[OU Sportfishing]

The guys caught a 30lb wahoo on That's Right today. Here's Captain John's audio report.


Also, just updated our web site and added a bunch of Split Charter dates out of Islamorada.

Islamorada Split Charters

[Over Under]

Figured we'd get out this afternoon, before the front comes through this evening. Awesome Thanksgiving Day weather here in the Keys and the Patch Reef fishing was good. Water was just dirty enough and I figured there would be a couple muttons around...Knocked off Justin's first Mutton Snapper, Cero Mackeral, and Nurse Shark. Had some good Yellowtails and also a Big 30# Baracuda that engulfed a live blue runner hanging off the stb. rigger. Skied 5' out of the water, 8' from the boat...good as it gets. Very cool watching a 6 year old casting gotcha lures and hooking into 5lb. jacks and cero macs.... he caught a lot more than i did, i can tell you that...

[Over Under]

Realtime Islamorada Fishing Report

[OU Sportfishing]

Simply put, a gorgeous week in Islamorada! A little cold front rolled through and helped to cool us all down. The first of the week Capt Andrew and Capt Jeff had to fill in for me and they had a great day including a nice Wahoo and several nice King Mackerels. They anchored up for a short time and caught some Snappers for dinner which turned out real nice.

Late in the week the weather got us for a day, however the next two days were perfect with light winds out of the NW and NE and the current was flowing pretty well too..,SW which is perfect for reef fishing. The Yellowtails really went to chewing for us as we had our limit in about two and a half hours with 6 guys, along with a handful of nice Spanish Mackerels; one was about 7lbs. All were caught on a quick retrieve of the Gotcha lure. There were some Mangrove Snappers which has slowed as these fish are moving to the Backcountry/Gulf side. We spent a little time looking in some deeper water 130 to 190 feet, however, we didn’t have much luck. It’s still too early, but it’s coming. We did, however, find a Sailfish on our right short rigger! It felt good since they have been a little finicky this week with the conditions that are here for them. There has been some caught all week but no great numbers.

We had a group of 11 today, the Webster family, and the kids had a blast. It’s always nice when things come together for the young ones! The Yellowtails bit pretty good as did the Mutton snappers, a few small Groupers and a bunch of Blue Runners. The water is very clean as we fished a wreck in about 60’ and could see the bottom perfectly. There was a pretty cool handful of big Blue parrot fish milling about along with a large school of Speedo’s. The Triggerfish eating at the chum was real exciting stuff for the youngsters today as they were from 5 to 13 had plenty of entertainment!!

Captain John Oughton

[OU Sportfishing]

Captain John Oughton just called in an audio report for this half day reef fishing trip today.