Hurricane Season Fishing Report

Tarpon

The fishing over the past few months has been great here in the Lower Florida Keys.  Overall, the weather has been mild and so far this year we have dodged the hurricanes.  The offshore fishing has been decent recently, we had a good mahi bite through July, but it died out as the dog days of summer set in.  The blackfin tunas started showing up around the last full moon, there were a lot of small fish, but some bigger ones were mixed in.  The pilchards have also started to show up along the south side of the Keys.  Both the pilchards and the tunas are promising signs for the upcoming fall and winter live bait season.

Red Grouper

During the summer months, the full day trips were the most successful.  Having the ability to run way to the west and fish the deeper reefs really paid off.  The mutton Snapper bite on the bottom was excellent and there were plenty of nice black groupers, red groupers, big porgies, amberjacks and other fish.  Blackfin tunas, kingfish, mahi mahi and bonitas were also caught on the surface or in the middle of the water column.  Usually on these trips, we’re using a combinations of live baits, dead baits and different artificial jigs and lures. 

Mutton Snapper

Fishing in the backcountry has been awesome the past few months.  We have had a lot of small tarpon hanging around the mangroves and in the bait schools. Targeting them with a 9wt fly rod or light spinning gear has been really fun.  Those fish should be staying put until the cold fronts start and then they become harder to find.  This is also a great time of year to target bonefish and there have been plenty of them around.  Not only do we have good numbers of bonefish down here, but late summer and early fall offer great conditions for targeting them with typically sunny skies and light winds.  It’s awesome to see big schools of bonefish waking across the flats during the low tides.

Bonefish

December Fishing Report

Dolphin in December

Tuna

Mutton Snapper

     Winter fishing is in full affect around Key West.  For the last month we have been doing a lot of live bait fishing offshore and around the reef.  Pilchards and ballyhoo have been the bait of choice for the most part and they have been pretty easy to come by so far this year.  The tuna bite on the offshore wrecks has been excellent the past couple weeks now.  We have been able to catch them anytime during the day, but the bite around the evening has been the best.  Mixed in with the tunas have been bonitas, rainbow runners, kingfish and amberjacks.  Also, when we had nice, clean blue water, the dolphin and wahoo were around.  The mutton snappers have been on the bottom around the wrecks too.  The sailfishing has not been great, there have been a few fish around, but we haven’t seen any large numbers of fish yet this season.  The conditions are right for the sailfish to show up though.      

     Kingfish and cero mackerels are thick around on the reef.  We have been catching a lot of them as were yellowtailing, especially when the ballyhoo show up in the chum slick.  The yellowtail snapper bite has been consistent and the fish have been nice size.  Chunks of bonita and live pilchards have been working best bait for them.  There have also been some big mutton snappers on the shallow patch reefs.  This is the time of year to catch big muttons in shallow, as they move into the cooler water in the winter.  Pilchards and bonita strips will work on the muttons, but live ballyhoo are the preferred bait.

     For the most part, Barracudas are the main fish we target in the backcountry in the winter.  They prefer the cooler temperatures and they actually get more aggressive when it gets colder.  They are an awesome fish to target on light tackle or with a fly rod.  They will attack the lure or fly violently and they fight incredibly well.  It is no easy task catching a barracuda in shallow water.  Days when its super windy and hard to get out on the flats, we drift the basins for trout, snapper, ladyfish and jacks.  We have also been fishing the backcountry channels with live pilchards and you catch a variety of fish on live bait, from snappers and jacks to barracudas and mackerel.  Shark fishing in the backcountry is another fun activity when the wind is blowing.   

Barracuda

June Fishing Report

mahi mahi

     June was a super busy month here in the Florida Keys, but the weather was not cooperative.  For the most part in June I was either fishing for mahi mahi offshore or fishing for tarpon inshore.  The offshore bite has been fantastic when we were able to make it out there.  The water quality out deep has been much better than last year and the fishing is much better too. There have been a lot of small mahi around with some big ones mixed in.  As usual we've found a lot of mahi under weeds and other floating debris, but some of the bigger fish we found were under frigate birds.  There have also been some billfish offshore and some scattered tunas mixed in.

     In the backcountry, the tarpon bite has been the most consistent it has been all year, despite the weather.  There have been a lot of fish on the oceanside and the bite has been good, but again the weather has often prevented us from fishing there.  We have also had some great early morning and evening bites.  The worm hatch was awesome this year, we fished further east from Key West, but there were a lot worms out and the the tarpon were taking flies.  The permit fishing picked up in June, a lot of the fish seemed to be done spawning and heading back into the shallows.  We saw a lot of permit causing the oceanside flats, mixed in with the tarpon, but there are a bunch of permit in the backcountry as well. 

tarpon

February Fishing Report

Sailfish Release

We have had a great month of fishing here in Key West and the winter weather has been cooperative too.  The tuna bite offshore has been awesome, typically we have been doing afternoon/evening trips to target the tunas with live pilchards around the offshore wrecks.  We have caught plenty of other fish on the pilchards as well, such as bonitos, amberjacks, jack crevalles and mutton snappers.  The sailfish bite has been consistent over the last month; we have had a few days with multiple hook ups, including one day when we caught 5 fish out of 5 bites.  All the sailfish have been caught on live baits like, goggle eyes, pilchards, and ballyhoo.  There has been a lot of action on the reef with some nice mutton snappers and kingfish.

We have being seeing a lot fish in the backcountry this past month too.  The typical winter species like barracudas, sharks, and jacks have been around, but there has been a good amount of bonefish and permit.  The Tarpon haven't really showed up yet around Key West, but any day now we should start to see some big schools of fish popping up.         

Blackfin Tuna