{"id":52069,"date":"2020-04-28T17:15:19","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T21:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/?p=52069"},"modified":"2023-05-08T08:23:05","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T12:23:05","slug":"islamorada-is-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/story\/cruising-and-chartering\/islamorada-is-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Islamorada Is Back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Islamorada\" <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n At the ends of most Islamorada docks, you\u2019ll see boats rigged for bluewater fishing. The location is between the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, right on the migration route for many fish.<\/span>\n Unsplash\/Keith-Luke<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

One of the photos USA Today ran in September 2017 to show damage after Hurricane Irma was of Bud N\u2019 Mary\u2019s Marina, an icon of the Florida Keys on Islamorada that has been around since 1944. More than 40 fishing captains and guides tie up there, and the docks were utterly mangled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Today, it\u2019s like none of it ever happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur part of the Keys, and I think probably Keys-wide, everything\u2019s back to normal,\u201d says Stephen Byrd, the marina\u2019s assistant manager. \u201cEspecially from Marathon up to the north\u2014you won\u2019t see probably any sign of any damage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Even better, he says, since Irma left, inshore fishing has improved. Florida Bay was \u201cflushed out,\u201d with old water gone and newer water in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a refreshing of sorts,\u201d he says. \u201cThe bonefishing is better now, snook fishing is great, tarpon fishing\u2014it\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Offshore fishing is also still solid, he says, because Irma didn\u2019t wreck the reef. As of December 2019, sailfishing was just as hot as it\u2019s always been off Islamorada, and Byrd is expecting March and April to bring the same kind of bonanza that this time of year has meant in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cMarch usually is the beginning of the spring season, so we\u2019re still having cold fronts, but you start seeing the change in the weather pattern, and with that, the species start to change,\u201d he says. \u201cMarch is a really good time to fish because you still see the winter sailfish, the cobia and others, but you also start to see tuna showing up. It\u2019s in the middle, so it\u2019s a cool time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a windy time too\u2014winds are typically easterly at a minimum of 10 to 15 knots\u2014but if yachtsmen can handle that, he says, then the only other consideration is getting a slip. Because so many marinas had to rebuild after Irma, locals moved their seasonal slip reservations around, taking some slips that used to be transient. Thus, visitors arriving by boat may need to adjust their usual dockage plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cThings just shifted,\u201d Byrd says. \u201cYou just want to call ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Slips Available<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n

Bud N\u2019 Mary\u2019s Marina on Islamorada has a limited number of slips available for visiting boats up to 45 feet length overall. Gas and diesel are at the fuel dock, and there\u2019s a shop with bait, tackle and ice.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Islamorada has rebounded from Hurricane Irma and is ready for business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28497,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Kim Kavin","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"20200428","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"156","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Islamorada was hit hard by Hurricane Irma but now it has fully recovered and is ready for you.","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"GAG7B4AZXZDB7N662GGUXM75LU","arc_website_url":"story\/cruising-and-chartering\/islamorada-is-back\/","custom_permalink":"story\/cruising-and-chartering\/islamorada-is-back\/","arc_subtype":"right-sidebar","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":0,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[156],"tags":[193,218,173,78,452,587],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52069"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}