Cobia
So far we have had a fairly mild fall down here in Key West, with the temperature in the mid to upper 70’s most days. We have a few mild cold fronts, but the water temp inshore still hasn’t dipped under 72 degrees. The island itself is slow right now, but we’re getting ready for the holiday rush. The fishing has been solid all around, with plenty of options offshore and around the reef, as well as a lot of variety in the backcountry. Typically, this time of year when I’m on the center console, I like fishing with live baits like pilchards, ballyhoo, herring and other baitfish. Whether I’m offshore looking for sailfish and tunas or inshore fishing for muttons and red groupers, I like using live baits.
Sailfish
Variety
Mahi fishing was spotty in the fall and we had a few sailfish and wahoo around in late October/early November. The offshore fishing dropped off for a couple weeks after that and just started picking up again this past weekend. The tunas started biting around the wrecks and a few sailfish showed up again. Besides the tunas, the offshore wrecks have been holding a variety of fish like cobia, mutton snappers, rainbow runners and other fish. Some of the fish have been caught on the bottom and others chummed in on the surface. On the breezy days we have been fishing on some of the inshore reefs and shallow rock piles. They can be good this time of year with muttons, red groupers, kings and a variety of other fish.
Bonefish
The fishing on the flats has been really good recently, the barracudas have started to show up and they have been aggressive the last couple weeks. The cuda fishing should stay pretty good as we head further into winter. The water temperature has been in the mid 70’s so we’re still seeing plenty of bonefish and permit on the flats. This time of year you can find some heavy bones around. We are even still seeing some schools of juvenile tarpon and they were eating pretty well the other day. Most likely the tarpon will be harder to come by as it gets colder, but you still have plenty of options down here in the winter.
Barracuda