Key West Fishing Reports
Updated fishing reports from the Lower Florida Keys & Key West
Archive for Florida Fishing Weekly
February 24, 2007 at 6:45 pm · Filed under Key West Sport Fishing, Florida Fishing Weekly
KEY WEST – Back to back cold fronts brought some windy weather and temperature change to the Lower Keys this week. Our mild winter weather was swept away by brisk north winds that sent temperatures into the 60s. To many of you that is nothing, but to this Keys dweller for more than ten years it sends me frantically looking for what could be the only sweater I own.
The last real calm day we had was beautiful. If you did not know better you’d think it was July by the calmness and warmth of this January morning. I know you are probably tired of hearing about wahoo in Key West, especially if you are not here catching them. But I’ve been told by many seasoned captains that wahoo like calm weather, and someone should certainly took advantage of this day out in the Atlantic waters off Key West.
Captain Joe Mercurio on the Triple Time had a banner day of wahoo fishing this week. Mercurio reiterated that almost true fact that wahoo like the calm sea.
“When it’s rough they get lock jaw, they just don’t want to bite,” Mercurio said.
Mercurio said these fish hit all throughout the day. They ended up landing nine wahoo that weighed between 30- and 45- pounds.
Captain Joe Mercurio runs out of A&B Marina in Key West. For more information visit his website at www.fishtripletime.com.
The 11th Annual Hog’s Breath King Mackerel Tournament participants were left with a weekend of rough weather to contend with. Many of the 164 boats would run as far as the Dry Tortugas to find their smoker king mackerel. It is uncertain how many boats actually went that far since the seas were an angry 5 to 6 feet.
Team Yo-Zuri reigned victorious in this years’ tournament. The team caught a 61.78- pound fish on the first day of the tournament. Let by Captain Ozzie Fischer this team from Ft. Myers had the win secured after their first day of fishing.
Complete results and photos from the tournament will be available on the Southern Kingfish Association website at www.fishska.com.
The sailfishing is expected to improve after this last cold front. There have been a select few reported this week. Sailfish like rougher weather but conditions and the bait supply still have to be right. The ballyhoo supply has not been as good as it should be, and this may be one of the results of it. The hope is that with this cool-down will prompt the bait supply to venture further south.
Captain Steve Rodger on Spear One reported some exciting action offshore. He was fishing the Atlantic waters with live bait. His anglers hooked 3 blackfin tuna, a sailfish and several bonito. The surprise of their offshore adventure came when they were reeling in one of the bonito and an estimated 400- pound marlin started thrashing the fish with its bill.
“The fish never even knew he was hooked,” Rodger said. Rodger throttled up the boat and chased this fish while his angler reeled trying to gain line and get an angle on the fish. Before they could catch up to the fish and possibly tie on another reel with more line, the marlin spooled them.
Rodger noted that he has never caught a marlin personally but has hooked quite a few.
The near shore waters continue to produce cobia, snapper and grouper. Cobia are being caught in the Gulf waters near any patch reef and smaller cobia can be found cruising the outside edge of the flats in the backcountry. Cobia are especially a good target for light tackle anglers and fly rodders in February.
The shallow water fishing took a bit of a shock with the cold snap this week. Prior to the first front there were several reports of large permit caught on the flats near Key West.
Since permit are more temperature sensitive than some of the other flats species, it may take a few warm days before we start seeing them actively feeding in shallow water again.
In leiu of the permit activity there are still plenty of fun species to fish for on the flats. Captain John Smouse on Shadow Caster out of A&B Marina has found his best fishing action in the backcountry basins near Key West. Smouse has been fishing for sea trout and catching plenty of them.
There is a slot limit on sea trout being between 15- and 20- inches. There is also an allowance of one sea trout over 20- inches which would be considered a trophy.
Smouse says there are plenty of large jacks and ladyfish working the mullet muds with the sea trout.
“You almost have to weed through the jacks and ladyfish to get to the sea trout,” Smouse said.
He’s been using a popping cork made by Cajun Thunder and it has been producing great.
For more information on fishing with Captain John Smouse contact him at 305-587-7669 or visit him at the A&B Marina behind the Commodore Restaurant in Key West.
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February 7, 2007 at 1:32 pm · Filed under Florida Fishing Weekly
KEY WEST – Some may say we have been fortunate to have such warm weather in the Keys this January. They are undoubtedly the ones who are wincing at the thought of going outside their Colorado home.
Our temperatures this week stretched well into the 80s and I overheard on one of our local radio stations that we even had a heat index forecast. These are not typical conditions for January at all and it has been affecting the fishing, good and bad.
Captain Jay Weed on the Lucky Charm says he’d rather see what we call a normal season. By normal he means with cold fronts that move through the area on a regular basis.
“I want to see cold weather, everybody loves it warm but we need to have a normal season,” Weed remarked.
Colder weather in winter changes our fishing in many ways. The water temperatures in the near shore waters drop allowing species like grouper to move from deeper water into much shallower water.
Some days this week were plagued with high winds leaving many boats at the dock. Weed managed to get out fishing on one of the nicer days and landed a great catch for his anglers from Port Charlotte.
Their catch consisted of 2 wahoo weighing in at 28- and 18 pounds plus a 12- pound bull dolphin and one king mackerel. The couple also released one sailfish estimated at 50- pounds.
Weed was fishing the Atlantic waters to the west of Key West near the Boca Grande Bar. These fish were caught while trolling dead ballyhoo in 160 to 240 feet of water. Weed noted that the water conditions were mainly clear and blue but there was one section of dirty water to the west.
Captain Ken Harris on Finesse was nearby fishing from his light tackle Conch 27. Harris had several king mackerel up to 30- pounds and black fin tuna.
For more information on Captain Jay Weed and the Lucky Charm please contact him at 305-304-0208 or visit him at the Historic Key West Seaport adjacent to Turtle Kraals restaurant.
One wahoo was probably enough of a battle for David Andrews of Boca Raton. Andrews was fishing with Captain Rush Maltz on Odyssea when he landed a 66- pound wahoo.
The Boca Raton couple had a great day of fishing. They landed a few large mutton snapper and a black fin tuna.
While Maltz was targeting the Atlantic waters on this trip, the king mackerel, mutton snapper and cobia have been snapping in the Gulf waters to the west of Key West. Mackerel are migrating fish by nature so they will go where the temperature suits them, this week it was in the Gulf of Mexico.
The shallow water flats have had some of the best action during this warm January. Water temperatures have been staying well above 70 and in some areas have hit 75 degrees.
The action has stayed consistent with lots of action in the mullet muds for sea trout, ladyfish and jacks.
Stalking the flats for permit was a good option for Paul Trabucco of Exeter, NH and Steve Pleau of Grey, ME. Their yearly trek to the Keys ended in tremendous victory when they both landed their first permit on fly within the same hour of fishing. Trabucco landed his fish first, a nice 10- pound permit. Pleau landed his fish just a short time later. They were fishing with Captain Justin Rea west of Key West on the flats adjacent to the Northwest Channel. Both fish were caught using the same crab fly pattern that Rea ties himself.
There have also been several reports of bonefish caught in the Marquesas Keys this week. Again, this warm weather pattern has blessed the flats anglers with some of the best fishing winter can offer in the Keys.
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January 22, 2007 at 5:35 pm · Filed under Key West Flats Fishing, Florida Fishing Weekly
KEY WEST – High pressure that lingered over the Lower Keys for most of the week helped keep the fishing active.
Captain Gene Chrzanowski on the Fatal Attraction out of A and B Marina splashed his newly renovated 53- foot Davis sportfishing boat just in time to catch the tail end of a great wahoo bite.
You have to be in the right place at the right time, explained Chrzanowski.
Several boats including the Fatal Attraction were finding wahoo near the Toppino buoy in 170 to 200 feet of water. The following day some of these boats went back to the same spot only to find there were no wahoo. Instead the wahoo had been replaced by a school of sleek king mackerel. Chrzanowski tried the waters a little further west the next day and landed a 30- pound wahoo.
Wahoo take the bait and run, success with wahoo fishing is landing 2 out of 3,Chrzanowski said.
Wahoo can crash a bait with such force and run so quickly that many times the line breaks. Several boats reported hooking 20 wahoo but only came home with five fish they actually landed.
For more information on the Fatal Attraction visit their website at http://www.fatalattractioncharter.com/.
King mackerel are surely going to be the focus for the next few weeks in Key West. The 11th Annual Hog’s Breath King Mackerel Tournament starts on January 26th and this intense two day tournament will have anglers running the distance for a winning fish. Last year the winning fish weighed 66.77 pounds. Team Lured Away conquered the rough seas making the 80 mile run to the Dry Tortugas fishing grounds.
The Gulf waters have been a good bet for king mackerel and Spanish mackerel. Several of the larger sport fishing boats drag dead baits for these fish. For tournament participants it is more likely they will be slow trolling a live blue runner.
Sailfishing has improved with our slightly rougher seas during the latter part of the week. Captain Rush Maltz on Odyssea reported landing two out of five sailfish hooked. The sailfish were hooked on live thread herring.
Maltz spent some time out at the reef during the rougher days fishing for grouper and snapper. He reported catching some sizable mutton snapper and red grouper up to 14- pounds.
Duncan Connelly Jr. of Atlanta, GA certainly celebrated his 13th birthday in style. Connelly received a fishing trip from his parents as a birthday gift. For a kid whose largest fish to date was a 5- pound brown trout, Connelly was certainly amazed to see a 20- pound permit up close.
“It fought hard,” Connelly said. He had never felt the pull of a fish like this ever.
Connelly did a great job listening to Captain Justin Rea as he instructed him where to throw the live crab in order to lead the fish. Permit prove to be an absolute sucker for a live crab.
Connelly landed not one, but two permit that day. In addition he tested his fly fishing skills in several of the mullet muds landing ladyfish, sea trout and jacks on fly.
I was fortunate to get some precious time on the skiff this week. In the days preceding our latest cold snap I had the opportunity to cast at several permit with my fly rod.
Permit have to be one of the most challenging fish to hook on a fly rod yet there are professional anglers who make it look like any every day occurrence. Not for this gal. I was staring permit number three in the face just a few days ago. He ate my fly so fast that I didn’t have time to strip the line tight in time.
It was certainly great to see these permit feeding. It is very apparent that they were feeding hard because they know that in cold weather there will not be much to eat.
For more information on permit fishing with Captain Justin Rea visit his website at http://www.flyfishingthekeys.com/
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January 22, 2007 at 5:34 pm · Filed under Florida Fishing Weekly
KEY WEST – Key West rolled into 2007 in style. If you missed the conch shell dropping atop Sloppy Joe’s on Duval, or the drag queen in the high heeled shoe, you missed a good Key West style party. The real action though was lurking just offshore, south of Key West in the Atlantic.
The word of the week around Key West was wahoo. Still giving anglers a run for their money, these aggressive fish have been tearing up the waters off Key West between the Curb and Sand Key.
Captain Bennett Taylor on the Outer Limits reported good results while trolling the waters near Sand Key. “We had 15 bites, got some and lost some,” Taylor remarked.
Taylor and several other boats in the offshore fleet were trolling dead baits and hooking these wahoo on the surface.
The bite has been good but the weather proved to be a bit precarious with some higher winds. Wahoo tend to bite better around the full moon phase. This can be attributed to the stronger tidal movement and currents. They may also be on the trail of bait that is on the move from the north.
There have been more sailfish in the area this week as well. Corbett Davis of Pensacola reported that he had a few shots at sailfish with his trusty fly rod. Davis spent the day fly fishing in the offshore waters with Captain Rush Maltz on Odyssea. Maltz commented that the sailfish seemed to be more interested in the large school of ballyhoo they had corralled near the reef.
Davis reported landing several very large bonito on fly.
Captain Alex Canalejo on Showtime also had a nice catch of black fin tuna. His anglers landed four tuna up to 24- pounds, a few kingfish and released a sailfish.
Maltz and Canalejo both run light tackle charters out of Murray Marina on Stock Island.
Patch reefs and shoals throughout the Lower Keys have been teeming with good sized snapper and grouper. Yellowtail snapper fishing has been good just off the reefs south of Key West while mangrove snapper are holding in closer to shore and in the Gulf waters.
Cobia are making the Gulf a more interesting place this week. Several boats reported catching cobia on the coveted spots in close to the Lower Keys. The one key to fishing in the Gulf is either knowing a spot or two or just putting the time in to stop and analyze any variation in the bottom. Whether it is a ledge that just drops a few feet or a discernible rock pile on the bottom, give it a chance to produce.
Live pinfish are a sure bet for reef and wreck fishing. Pinfish are one of the easiest baits to catch without a cast net and keep alive in a live well. They are very hardy fish. Throwing out a live pinfish at any spot should get you an immediate bite if anyone is home. If not, give it a few tries and move on to the next spot.
Inshore fishing has given flats anglers plenty of variety this week. There is no doubt that fishing the flats in higher winds can be tough but there are ways to get around it and still get plenty of action.
This week the mullet muds were the spot to fish for just about anything. Ladyfish, jacks, sharks, sea trout and even tarpon were feeding on mullet in the backcountry basins of the Lower Keys.
Captain Tim Carlisle offered some sound advice on tarpon fishing in January. “The full moon brings the tarpon in, it’s the big push of the tide,” Carlisle said. These fish can be found feeding in deeper channels and in the many deeper basins throughout the Lower Keys. Carlisle also has found that even with some of our fast moving cold fronts, the tarpon will not go far. They may move into the Gulf for a few days and when the weather improves they will be right back in the basins.
January is not exactly the perfect time to fish for tarpon, but they are indeed a welcome sight on the flats on some of our warmer days.
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January 3, 2007 at 8:21 pm · Filed under Florida Fishing Weekly
KEY WEST – Blustery conditions may have made fishing conditions rough in our offshore waters this week but it certainly did not keep the fish from biting.
Reports of winds in excess of 30 knots made getting to the fishing grounds near the reef and offshore more difficult. Anglers and guides that braved these conditions were generously rewarded with some great fishing.
“The fishing has kind of been different,” explained Captain Mike Weinhofer. He was referring to the larger dolphin up on the reef chasing ballyhoo. This is so unusual because dolphin notoriously do not feed when there is a north wind.
Weinhofer was finding dolphin in 120 to 180 feet of water. These larger dolphin were of course mixed in with some smaller schoolies which provided some constant action for both Weinhofer on his light tackle boat Compass Rose and for many of the offshore trolling boats working the same area.
The sailfish bite has been more consistent this week and may be due to the rougher weather. Sailfish have been crashing bait on top of the reef off Key West and reports are they are in as little water as 25 feet out to 180 feet. Sailfish can be found between the reef and outer bar.
Another contender in the bite offshore is the wahoo. “The wahoo bite has been fairly consistent but not red hot,” said Weinhofer. He had spent a few days this week fishing for them with live speedos and slow trolling. Several wahoo were caught this week among the Key West fleet including a few in the 30- and 40- pound range.
Wahoo are one of the fastest pelagic species in our Florida Keys waters. They can travel at speeds up to 60 mph. This speed combined with their ability to dump line off a reel in a matter of seconds make the wahoo a very sought after game fish.
Although we have had a fair amount of black fin tuna in the area this fall they have finally started to school up on the Sub to the west of Key West. This area has a wreck we call the Sub and is in approximately 220 feet of water. Light tackle captains will anchor in a line just off the Sub and throw live bait to get the tuna up near the surface.
Both light tackle fisherman and fly fisherman enjoy this season of our Key West offshore fishing because of the tremendous possibilities. Fishing for black fin tuna can be very productive with a well full of live bait. Tossing out net fills of pilchards and in turn hooking one pilchard through the nostrils on a 1/0 to 2/0 hook with a 20 to 30 pound fluorocarbon leader will not only allow the bait to stay more alive but reducing the pound leader will increase the bite ratio. Tuna have big eyes and are sometimes hard to deceive even with a live bait. Reducing the leader to 20 pound test will get more bites but also more fish broken off if they are fought too long and wear through the lighter leader.
One drawback to the tuna bite right now is the numerous sharks present on the Sub and the End of the Bar.
Captain Tom Ault on the Time Out reported some steady action offshore with dolphin and king mackerel. “Kings were on the small side with a few decent ones mixed in,” Ault said. He’s been finding these fish in 120 to 200 feet.
King mackerel are notorious for short strikes on dead bait. Ault mentioned that even though they fish a single hook in their trolled baits, they may make the haywire twist longer so the hook is further back in the bait. Pre-rigged ballyhoo often have two hooks in each bait which is perfect when trolling for king mackerel.
Live bait fishing for kings is another story. A medium to large sized blue runner with a stinger hook in the tail section of the bait will help increase the hook up ratio with these razor toothed fish. A wire leader is always a must.
The 11th Annual Hog’s Breath King Mackerel Fishing Tournament is scheduled for January 26th through 28th. The tournament headquarters are at Murray Marina on Stock Island. For more information please visit Murray Marina’s website at www.murraymarine.com.
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