Key West Fishing Reports
Updated fishing reports from the Lower Florida Keys & Key West
Archive for Key West Deep Sea Fishing
March 3, 2008 at 2:10 am · Filed under Key West Flats Fishing, Key West Deep Sea Fishing
The Keys are humming with the sound of blustery northeast winds right now. The seas are pretty rough but despite the wind, the fishing is not half bad.
The flats are holding plenty of barracuda along the south side of the islands. Not only is this area protected from some of the winds, but it holds a lot of life.
Some nice sized permit are being seen west of Key West along Calda Bank and in the Lakes Passage. This is the time to be here for some of the best permit fishing. It will last though March and into the beginning of April. The first full moon in April will trigger the spawn and these permit will vacate the flats for the most part and head to deeper wrecks and patch reefs to spawn. Hit them while they are here on the flats first.
Yes we did have some great tarpon fishing nearly a week ago. The cooler waters are at best 71- degrees in some spots. We’ll need a warm up of a few days to get the tarpon bit going again. It won’t be long before it will just be hot every day and we won’t need to worry about another cold front. Hang in there tarpon anglers!
Offshore waters are rough to say the least. Sticking to inshore waters might be the safest bet for a few more days. The sailfishing has got to be good though. They love the Northeast wind and will run right down the Keys in search of a bait to eat. Many can be seen almost “surfing” the waves - we call this tailing conditions for sailfish. It is the ultimate if you get to fish for them this way - sight fishing for sails!
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February 6, 2008 at 4:01 pm · Filed under Key West Flats Fishing, Key West Deep Sea Fishing
The days are still beautiful here in the Lower Keys. Warm and sunny. Keep that in mind as you plow through slush and snow on your way to work. The fishing is hot this week. Permit on the inshore flats west of Key West and on the backcountry sandy flats of the Lower Keys off Sugarloaf and Cudjoe. The water temps are nearly 75 which can only mean one thing - Tarpon! Plenty of other inshore fishing to keep an angler busy - sharks, jacks, barracuda, and the occasional cobia.
Offshore waters have enjoyed a south breeze for a few days. Good fishing for sailfish and it will only get better as we head into the next few months.
Upcoming Tournaments:
March Merkin Permit Invitational Tournament - March 12, 13, & 14 in Key West
World Sailfish Championship - April 15-19 in Key West
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December 15, 2007 at 3:02 pm · Filed under Key West Flats Fishing, Key West Deep Sea Fishing
Our Key West weather has been very warm for December. It has kept some species hanging around like mahi-mahi in the offshore waters, and bonefish in the shallows. These fish are always welcome because they are fun to fish for and put on a great fight.
Cooler temperatures would be nice though. It would toughen up the deep sea fishing by bringing in more king mackerel, blackfin tuna and sailfish. These species have already shown themselves just outside the reef already this month, but a good snap of cold weather will just bring more.
December is a great time to be in the Keys. While the rest of the country is literally freezing, we may get a few nights in the 60s but the days are sunny and can reach 80 degrees. There is plenty to do on the water - offshore, inshore, flats - it doesn’t matter what your preference is.
Offshore fishing will welcome several species including wahoo, tuna, sailfish, king mackerel and even a few dolphin (mahi-mahi). There are several areas where this fish congregate. Fishing for them from a light tackle boat is a lot of fun but if you have a larger party of 6 people, trolling offshore is a great way to spend a day with friends.
Reef and wreck fishing can also be done from either of these types of boats. Deep wrecks hold a variety of snapper, grouper and amberjack. There can also be very large sharks on these wrecks that put on a great fight on any type of conventional fishing gear.
The reef holds yellowtail snapper, barracuda, mackeral, jacks, rainbow runners and grouper. Take your pick because the action can be thick at times. This is a fun type of trip to take with your children as it will keep them occupied for hours. Our main reef structures are nearly 7 miles off Key West, but there are many patch reefs that are in shallow water closer to home. A backcountry or flats guide can certainly take you to some of these spots for similar action without the big waves of the offshore waters.
Backcountry fishing can be considered an easy day of fun running around in shallow water. Many species including bonefish, permit, barracuda, cobia, seatrout, redfish, snook, jacks and even the occasional tarpon can be found in the basins around the Lower Keys and on the skinny water flats. Many of the shallow water boats can take two anglers each but the price is more reasonable than an offshore trip if you just want to get a line wet and have some fun on the water.
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November 4, 2007 at 1:41 pm · Filed under Key West Flats Fishing, Key West Deep Sea Fishing
The north winds blow and our first real cold front is here. Honestly it is welcomed with open arms after a hot, hot summer and fall season. Now a cold front for the Keys is not parka weather so don’t be thinking you are coming to the frozen tundra now. Low in the 70s and high in the low 80s is a cool down for us.
We are now entering our winter season of fishing here in the Keys. Here’s a rundown on what to expect:
Key West Flats Fishing: As the temperatures cool you can wave goodbye to the tarpon. They are going to become very scarce with the water temps plummeting. There may be some resident tarpon cruising around Key West harbor, but they are more apt to be swirling around a fish cleaning table at the A&B Marina or behind Turtle Kraals restaurant. Leave your tarpon fishing dreams behind for a little while, they will be back soon enough.
Permit are some of the hardiest fish on the flats. They are constantlly on the hunt for food and if the water is a little choppy it’s even easier to get near them on the flats without scaring them. Permit love crabs and shrimp so keep that in mind when you grab a few live baits to go fish with. Permit will hang around through the winter months. They may head out to deeper water if the flats temps drop too low, but don’t dispair, they usually return within a few days time.
Bonefish may take a vacation and head to deeper water too. They don’t like to tolerate water temps that are below 70 degrees. Islamorada and Key Largo will hold more bones in the winter months because of their protection from the mainland of Florida and the Everglades.
Key West Deep Sea Fishing: Ooh baby is this a good time to fish offshore! Things are just starting to heat up in our offshore waters. A cold front’s biggest benefit is it will push the bait supply farther south and the fish will follow. Expect to see more tuna, sailfish, and wahoo around the deep wrecks and just off the reef edge. Snapper and grouper will also spend more time in shallow water making it easier to anchor off the reef and chum for these deliciouos fish. Mutton snapper, yellowtail, mangrove snapper and grouper are just some of the fish you may encounter on an offshore fishing adventure.
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October 28, 2007 at 1:20 pm · Filed under Key West Flats Fishing, Key West Deep Sea Fishing, Florida Fishing Weekly
KEY WEST – The end of October marks the beginning of a new fishing season in the Keys. The local radar already shows a strong line of storms dotted in red and yellow quickly approaching from the west. Could this possibly be our first cold front? I hope so.
The best sign of changing weather is when a local captain calls you out of the blue to give you a laundry list of fish species that he’s wrangled in on a half day morning charter.
Capt. Bennett Taylor on the Outer Limits couldn’t talk slow enough from his own excitement for the morning catch. Three sailfish, dolphin, tuna and wahoo all caught before 11 AM.
Taylor had been running to the east for his last few charters but noted the action was directly south of Key West just past Sand Key Light.
Generally the fishing becomes very active in our inshore waters and no boat has to go very far past 180- feet to find fish. Right now there is not a clear color change but that does not seem to matter.
Capt. Tom Ault on the Time Out reported an equally good catch this week. His anglers released 3 sailfish and caught 3 wahoo ranging from 18- to 35- pounds. Ault was fishing the waters off Sand Key to the end of the Boca Grande Bar.
“All the action has been in pretty close lately,” Ault said.
Ault was trolling both bare and skirted ballyhoo for these fish. He mentioned that two of the wahoo hit surface baits while one was hooked using the downrigger.
Much of our action for blackfin tuna will start to concentrate to the west of Key West on the Sub. This area will get populated by light tackle boats that anchor and throw handfuls of live bait to bring the blackfin tuna to a feeding frenzy. The larger boats like the Time Out and Outer Limits will often troll the area hoping to pick up a few tuna in between.
This area will start to be a hot spot in November and December.
The flats have had their fair share of good fishing too. Bonefish have been at the top of the list this week. There are plenty of good size schools available and the fish are plump, most weighing in around 7- to 8- pounds.
Scott Frost from Chicago, IL had a great day of fishing with Capt. Justin Rea out of Sugarloaf Key. Frost landed 7 bonefish using live shrimp.
Capt. Diego Cordova reported a great morning of fishing the flats in Marathon. Cordova’s anglers Phil and Donna Stevenson of Indiana hooked four permit and landed three. The couple also caught several other species including jacks and sharks.
Cordova has been fishing in the Keys since 1978. He operates his charter services from Marathon to Key West on his 21- foot Keyhopper skiff. For more information on Capt. Diego Cordova, visit his website at www.floridakeysflats.com or give him a call at 305-395-1228.
Another flats captain who is quickly becoming a bonefishing expert is Capt. John Smouse. Smouse operates the only flats skiff located at the A&B Marina. His charter service, Shadow Caster, has been busy this week due to the influx of visitors for our annual Halloween celebration.
Smouse has been targeting bonefish as well. He generally specializes in bait fishing for tarpon, bonefish and permit.
Smouse has been utilizing the incoming tide this week on the backcountry flats east of Key West.
“The biggest struggle is learning the tides and trying to follow them around to get a slam,” Smouse said.
The tides vary by close to an hour each day. Smouse says that in some areas around Key West the tide will flow out to the north, while in other areas it will flow south.
The early morning tarpon fishing is also thinning out. Although there will always be resident tarpon around the Key West Harbor area, the baby tarpon spots that many guides have memorized will be less populated as the fish move on.
For more information on fishing with Capt. John Smouse, contact him at 305-587-7669.
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October 5, 2007 at 12:52 pm · Filed under Key West Flats Fishing, Key West Deep Sea Fishing
The Lower Keys are finally starting to cool down a bit. Fishing both inshore and offshore has been active.
Inshore and flats fishing has been fabulous for bonefish. Plenty of bonefish in the 6- to 8- pound range are roaming the flats just ready to inhale a fly or live shrimp. The Marathon Bonefish Tournament in the latter part of September yielded 35 bonefish for one team that was guided by Capt. Albert Ponzoa of Marathon. Congrats!
Permit fishing will continue to get better this month and should remain strong through January or pending our first cold snap (hopefully not). Permit love live crabs and will eat one without even thinking if they are in a feeding mood. Fly fishing anglers also love October and November to hunt for permit. Winds tend to be lighter than in February and March when permit fishing is also at a peak.
Permit fishing with a fly rod can be challenging but don’t dispair. You may have read a lot about special permit fly patterns and think that is the secret but there is really more to it than that. Finding the right fish in the right mood makes all the difference in the world. Oh and an accurate cast will also help.
Tarpon fishing will start to diminish soon and be a spot to spot situation. Juvenile tarpon are mostly what we find in the backcountry this time of year. There are reportedly still some larger tarpon in the Key West Harbor area.
Reef fishing has been fairly active with plenty of yellowtail to be had. The best tactic is to find live pilchards if you can and use them as bait. Grouper should start moving up into more shallow water along the patch reefs and wrecks for the fall months.
Key West offshore fishing has improved. Big dolphin have been in close from 300- to 800- feet. Wahoo fishing has just started to improve. Look for more action from wahoo during the stronger moon phase. There have also been some sailfish available too. Look for blackfin tuna to show up soon. There have already been some around following bait balls.
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August 21, 2007 at 5:31 pm · Filed under Key West Flats Fishing, Key West Deep Sea Fishing
Hurricane Dean had already made it’s second landfall this morning on the Yucatan peninsula. I can’t imagine what those folks are going through with a category 5 storm but it had to have been bad. Here in the Keys we’ve got higher than normal winds which has made fishing tough for the offshore fleet especially.
Tarpon fishing is still strong as there are some larger fish swimming the ocean right now. Bonefish and permit are also ever present on the flats and with these stronger winds they are offered a little break in the water temperature.
Late August has advantages for fishing in the shallows. Great tides plus mostly calm weather. Expect to get plenty of opportunities to hook fish. Offshore fishing has slowed down considerably but a full day of offshore fishing is still producing some nice sized dolphin and the occasional wahoo under a vast weed line or floating debris.
As the week progresses the winds are expected to continue to subside and we can get back to summer as we know it, hot and humid.
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August 2, 2007 at 5:22 pm · Filed under Key West Flats Fishing, Key West Deep Sea Fishing, Florida Fishing Weekly
KEY WEST - The hot August heat will make fishing a challenge this month. The mid-day heat will keep many shallow water anglers on an early schedule so they can still get in some fishing before the water temperatures peak at close to 90 degrees.
A well kept secret about our tarpon fishery is that even in July there are still large tarpon to be fought off the Lower Keys. Although the size of the tarpon may vary greatly, there are still some big slobs that are easily estimated to weigh 80- to 100- pounds.
Just last week there were a few of these fish available west of Key West in the waters around the Marquesas.
Joe Taylor of Senaca, PA took advantage of the peaceful quiet of late July to chase tarpon, but also to just relax and enjoy the beauty of the Keys.
“Of the seven or eight times I’ve been down, this was the most relaxing,” Taylor said.
His day started early, around 5:30 AM. He met Capt. Justin Rea at the City Marina dock early to try and get out fishing before the onslaught of sport season lobster enthusiasts headed out.
The early morning tarpon fishing was exceptional. Taylor hooked several large tarpon that he fought hard until they popped off. Taylor also landed a few juvenile tarpon. The smaller tarpon are much more easily fought, landed and of course released.
As the sun gets higher it becomes easier to see bonefish and permit on the more shallow flats.
Taylor said he equally enjoyed the bonefishing experience because it was just him and the guide.
Bonefish are still being seen in good numbers in the backcountry waters from Big Pine to Key West, and also in select spots west of Key West to the Marquesas.
Bonefish most often enjoy live shrimp and they have the ability to hone in on the scent of shrimp from a great distance.
Even if anglers are fly fishing for bonefish, the fish in the Lower Keys tend to be very open to running right over and eating a fly. Their close cousins in the Upper Keys around Islamorada are sometimes not as easily fed.
August will still provide great opportunities on the flats to fish for bonefish and permit while tarpon will settle into their various holes along the backcountry mangrove islands. Sharks and barracuda are still ever present on the flats and should not be overlooked as a good quarry for anglers of any ability.
The offshore waters have been productive for juvenile dolphin this week. Dolphin must measure 20- inches to the fork to keep and according to several of the offshore captains there have been plenty of dolphin big enough to keep while they have also released a lot of fish too.
There have been some larger dolphin mixed in these schools but they seem to be educated and can at times be very difficult to hook.
Keep in mind that in large schools of juvenile dolphin there can always be a bigger fish lurking close by.
Capt. Tom Ault on the Time Out spent a morning fishing for dolphin with a father and son team from Ireland.
“They’ve never seen fish like this so it’s been a lot of fun,” Ault said.
Ault’s anglers had plenty of action in the waters 8- miles off Sand Key Light. They did hook a larger dolphin which hit one of the largest baits they had out, it jumped so violently that it eventually jumped itself free.
The main event of this fishing trip was the release of a 100- pound marlin.
“He finally saw a bait he liked and ate it,” Ault said.
After an hour of battling this fish on 30- pound test, his anglers from Ireland got a good look at a blue marlin as they released it.
For more information on fishing with Capt. Tom Ault please contact him at 305-304-2768.
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May 23, 2007 at 7:22 pm · Filed under Key West Sport Fishing, Key West Deep Sea Fishing
Well the sun is supposed to be shining down on us by now. Instead we’ve got a front lingering over the Keys causing havoc in the form of 25 to 35 mph winds. Yuck.
Despite the wind ripping out of the north east, dolphin fishing offshore has been pretty hot. Mahi-Mahi up to 35- pounds are being caught off Key West, plus the occasional wahoo and sailfish. The dolphin are still in close so take advantage of it before the summer heat strikes and they move farther offshore.
Tuna fishing behind the shrimp boats is a long haul for most captains. Last report was 80 miles in the Gulf one way! The good news is many of the boats are holding more blackfin tuna than bonito. Don’t forget to fish the bottom here too, mutton snapper like to linger under a shrimp boat that just tossed it’s by catch.
Tarpon fishing has not been easy. The fish are here but difficult to feed with a fly. The harbor guys are having more luck with hooking up using chum and by-catch to entice the bite.
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May 3, 2007 at 2:31 pm · Filed under Key West Sport Fishing, Key West Deep Sea Fishing
Live bait and sailfishing go hand and hand this week in the Lower Keys. We’ve got fish in 100 to 400 feet of water with some tailing conditions. The live bait wins the fish!
There are some cobia on the color change and blackfin tuna and king mackerel along the reef. Bottom fishing for snapper and grouper has improved tremendously with the change in current and fluctuation of the Gulf Stream.
For those tarpon gurus, it’s still tough fishing here in the Lower Keys for tarpon. The harbor has plenty of them, so many fish you could walk over them. But they have not made a big move to the flats yet. Several guides are doing fine with catching one or two each day but no great numbers of fish have been reported yet.
Permit and bonefish are still plentiful in the backcountry and west of Key West. While permit do spawn offshore this time of year there are some on the flats that range from 10 to 17- pounds.
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