By Todd Staley, Fishing Director – They say that El Niño is finally starting to go away and the temperature of Equatorial waters is finally beginning to drop. I don’t think I will recover any of the hair I’ve lost but the fishing just might get a little more predictable. The light seasonal rains have finally started after a long drought and everything that had turned brown miraculously turned back to green in 3 days. Schools of yellowfin tuna have started passing by with the dolphins. The last one was aggravating as the fish didn’t chew that well but we did manage an 80 lb block of steak and sashimi for the guests.
Sails are still around and still having days of double digits but they are also doing their pre-spawn ritual up on the surface. When there is that kind of flirting going on sometime they get finicky about running down a bait offered to them. The dropping water temperature should bring more marlin our way as well.
We have even seen a few dorado which were scarce in the height of the Niño season. Inshore has been decent fishing with good days and slow days but thank you fish gods, mostly good days. Roosterfish have been active and checked off a lot of bucket lists. Snapper are biting and looking good on dinner plates. Deeper, the grouper have been biting with some tilefish.
I am going to put up a couple of photos of some of the stranger fish we have seen this season inshore. Don’t quite know why, but interesting none the less.
Dennis Tilton of Boston Whaler with a Congria. Although not rare it is a strange looking and deliscious fish
A juvenile Mexican Hognose snapper from Matapalo Rock
This deep-water Stargazer also came from the famous rock at the mouth of the Gulf
This just in – The Kessler group went 24/7 on sailfish yesterday – congrats guys!