All things considered, September was a great month for fishing in the Lower Keys. We ended the month with a close call from Hurricane Helene, but we got lucky and it just missed us. The weather was still bad enough to keep us off the water for a few days, but we were back out catching fish shortly after it passed. The bonefish and tarpon fishing continue to be great and the permit fishing continues to be slow. Most of the tarpon are smaller, like 10-30lbs, but we still have a few big fish around. The flats fishing should be good for another month or so, until the cold fronts start and then it will get harder and less consistent. It has started to feel like fall the last few weeks, as a lot of different baitfish schools began showing up in the backcountry and the water is also starting to cool off after these last two storms brushed past us. Also, the birds of prey began their migration south and we spotted a few Kestrels, Cooper’s Hawks, Red-shouldered Hawks and a few others.
August Fishing Report
August was pretty slow down here in the Lower Keys and some of the restaurants have started to close for a few weeks, during our slow season. We had some tourists around early in the month for the start lobster season and there were some people around last weekend for the holiday, but overall it’s been quiet. Although, it may feel like the fall in some parts of the country, it still feels very much like summer down here and it will for at least another month. The flats fishing last month was consistently good for tarpon and bonefish and it should stay that way well into October. If you can deal with the heat, this is a great time of year to visit the keys for a few different reasons; you can find better deals on flights and hotels, the fishing is still good and there is not a lot pressure on the fish right now.
June Fishing Report
Although mother nature hasn’t been kind to us the last few days, overall the weather this past month has been awesome and the fishing has been great. Big tarpon are usually the goal this time of year, so that is what we’ve been focusing on. There have been a lot of tarpon in the Lower Keys right now and the fish have been eating most days. When we do go look for bonefish, that has been great too and you can get a lot of shots when the tide gets right out back. The fishing should remain excellent for the next couple months too. The big tarpon may start moving on soon, but there are always some fish hang around all summer and the bonefish and permit fishing should be just heating up.
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