The fishing over the past few months has been great here in the Lower Florida Keys. Overall, the weather has been mild and so far this year we have dodged the hurricanes. The offshore fishing has been decent recently, we had a good mahi bite through July, but it died out as the dog days of summer set in. The blackfin tunas started showing up around the last full moon, there were a lot of small fish, but some bigger ones were mixed in. The pilchards have also started to show up along the south side of the Keys. Both the pilchards and the tunas are promising signs for the upcoming fall and winter live bait season.

During the summer months, the full day trips were the most successful. Having the ability to run way to the west and fish the deeper reefs really paid off. The mutton Snapper bite on the bottom was excellent and there were plenty of nice black groupers, red groupers, big porgies, amberjacks and other fish. Blackfin tunas, kingfish, mahi mahi and bonitas were also caught on the surface or in the middle of the water column. Usually on these trips, we’re using a combinations of live baits, dead baits and different artificial jigs and lures.

Fishing in the backcountry has been awesome the past few months. We have had a lot of small tarpon hanging around the mangroves and in the bait schools. Targeting them with a 9wt fly rod or light spinning gear has been really fun. Those fish should be staying put until the cold fronts start and then they become harder to find. This is also a great time of year to target bonefish and there have been plenty of them around. Not only do we have good numbers of bonefish down here, but late summer and early fall offer great conditions for targeting them with typically sunny skies and light winds. It’s awesome to see big schools of bonefish waking across the flats during the low tides.

Sorry for the lack of reports recently, were just starting to get back to normal since Hurricane Irma. Thank you to all my clients who made it down to fish in October, I know some people had to change hotels and some restaurants were not fully operational, but your business means everything to this little island. If anyone is hesitant to visit Key West after the storm, don't be. We are ready for the holiday season and the fishing has been excellent. The wind has started blowing from the north now and the tunas have been biting offshore. We were able to get out one evening earlier this week and we caught a few blackfin tunas, plus a couple dolphin. The sailfish started showing up too and hopefully we get a consistent bite throughout the winter. Also the wahoo fishing should be getting good around the December and January full moons, if anyone has interest in live bait fishing for wahoo, that would be a great time.

We did a lot of backcountry fishing October, once the water started clearing up after the storm, the fishing turned on in the shallows. There were plenty of schools of small tarpon around. They were chasing bait around the mangroves. We did a lot fishing for them with live pilchards, but you can cast artificial lures and flies at them as well. The bonefishing was also great after the storm, we saw a lot of big schools of bonefish pushing around the flats. Now that the weather is starting to cool down, we have seen less bonefish and we are starting to do more barracuda fishing on the flats. Winter is a great time target barracudas in the backcountry; they like the cooler water temperature. The barracudas have a super aggressive bite, the fight well and they will jump too. They are an awesome predator to target in shallow water with either light spinning gear or with a fly rod.

Hurricane Season Fishing Report

October Fishing Report

Florida Keys Fishing Reports