The winter fishing in Key West is in full swing. There have been sailfish, wahoo and tuna around offshore. Leading up to this full moon, we spent most of our time targeting tunas and wahoo on live baits. The tuna bite on pilchards has been fantastic around the wrecks, particularly later in the afternoon. The wahoo have been eating larger live baits, such as blue runners and they have been around the edge of the reef. We have had some very breezy weather this week and some of the trips haven't made it offshore. Instead we fished some of the inshore rock piles and patch reefs. The mutton snapper bite has been good around the nearshore rock piles. Most of them have been eating live pilchards or ballyhoo. As a bonus, the porgy bite has been red hot around the patch reefs too.
The backcountry fishing has been good, when the weather has been warm enough there have been some bonefish around. This week with the colder weather though, we have been seeing more barracudas on the flats. The basins have been holding a lot of life, from snappers to trout to jacks. The mud slicks have been thick and we've also been seeing the jacks chasing schools of ballyhoo around the backcountry.
Mutton Snapper
wahoo