Probably my favorite time of the year to be offshore fly fishing is December and January here in the Keys. We’ve had some great weather this Christmas week. It’s been a bit brisk outside (68 degrees) but the fish are biting and the winds are calm.

I got wind of some good news from a few local captains that the tuna were biting real good and I headed offshore yesterday with a good friend of mine, Captain Edward Michaels. It didn’t take long to find live pilchards and we headed offshore to join the rest of the fleet already chasing a large ball of bait. This sight was difficult to miss with a flock of birds overhead and the sea exploding just below them. We hit it on a day where it was a mix of tunas and false albacore. We both had many strikes and a lot of great hook ups on a fly rod.

One of the false albacore that Captain Edward landed tipped the scale at 17lbs. It was a great fighting fish to say the least. We ended the day with two nice blackfin tuna, one weighing in at 24 pounds!

I hope this trend of fishing continues offshore for at least a few more days until the next front blows through. It’s been fabulous weather and great fishing.