Islamorada Patch Reefs May 24, 2016

Fished Islamorada patch reefs during the morning and afternoon 10:30am - 3:30pm.   Left Miami about 6:30 and arrived at Islamorada close to 8:30.   We fished the shallows at about 40ft hoping to catch some small baitfish to take to the deep, but fishing was really slow. Many undersized yellowtail  and waters were relatively calm at 1ft.  Clarity was clear for the most part at the tide was going out after 10:30am.

We also tried to slow troll on the way out to the deeper waters.  Yo-zuri deep diver plugs, but no bites at all.  Near the reef/light sanctuary we were marking more fish. Not necessarily getting hookups, but this would have been a better spot to start prospecting.  Most of the other boats were there for a good reason.  There were also more birds around signaling baitfish and predators were in the general area.

Managed to get at least a few hookups when we approached the 100ft depth.  Hook my first Cero Mackerel with a 150g  Gypsy Vertical Jig.  When I got him to the surface I noticed about 3 other followers were also chasing the jig, so the mackerels were certainly around, but they really wanted a live bait, or a fast moving one like a jig, not the dead bottom baits were were using on the patch reefs.