Wednesday May 30th was our first day of tagging off Isla Mujeres. Seas were 5 ft to 7 ft with a few waves up to 10 ft. Nevertheless we had an excellent day fishing with 28 dolphin tagged. We also caught 4 sailfish and one white marlin. We are fishing the reef edge in water 170-250 ft deep. Water temperature is 83.5 degrees with little variation. There is a strong current moving to the North so we just zigzag back and forth and try to keep the waves from breaking over the transom. Most of the tagged dolphin were less than 20" in length. We did catch two fish over 30 lbs. Getting those fish to the boat with the waves and current was a major effort on 20 lb tackle. We fished for 8 hours, covered 65 miles according to the GPS tracks and only fished a small section of the reef line. Soon as the waves drop out we will move further North and explore some large reef lines plus move out in deeper water around the Aerosmith Bank.

We plan to be here 3 weeks and I can already tell we will not have time to explore every major fishing area. There are pods of whale sharks in the area, large mako sharks on the prowl plus spectacular deep drop opportunities for grouper and snapper. We will also move over to Isla Contoy and Isla Holbox to explore the flats fishing for tarpon, permit and bonefish. We will tag everything we catch to help scientist understand migration patterns and support conservation efforts.

The Yucatan Straits between Mexico and Cuba is the major gateway to the Gulf of Mexico and Gulf Stream moving up through the Florida Straits. With the major upwelling zones, the bait fish and predators all congregate here to feed. We will try to document the ecosystem and share it with you on this blog. We will post more pictures soon. Best to all.