Fishing Reports

We have had some wonderful kite fishing over the last several days, raising as many as a dozen Sailfish per day, along with Blackfin Tuna, Dolphin and King Mackerel. On Sunday 3/27 we caught 3 Sails but had 8 others on which either jumped off or otherwise made their escape. We also landed several 20lb Blackfins, a couple “gaffer” Dolphin and both King and Cero Mackerel. On Monday 3/28 we caught 4 sails and several Dolphin all by 1:00pm. We expect this type of fishing to continue all through the month of April as the spring migration gets in full swing.

Over the last week a beautiful color change has developed just offshore of the reef edge, south of Key West. Green water changes to powder blue to dark blue with very strong easterly current on the dark blue side. For 3 or 4 days we have experienced wonderful action along this edge. Sailfish, Tuna, Dolphin and Cobia have all been swimming on top where a well placed cast with a live bait most often produces a bite. Fishing a 3/4 day on Sun March 20th our catch included 4 Sailfish releases, half a dozen Dolphin up to 12lbs,  2 20lb Blackfin Tuna and a 40lb Cobia.
 

The last several days have featured a wide variety of reef fish. King Mackerel remain common and we have had 6 to 10 of these each day. Additionally we have been catching Black Grouper up to 25lbs and some very large Mutton Snapper, today we had one that weighed 18 1/2 lbs. Plenty of Tunny and the occasional Blackfin have also been part of the catch. Add to that Amberjack, Jack Cravalle, various Shark species and Yellowtail Snapper. Our clients over the last week have been uniformly impressed by the amount of action.

We have had a long stretch of very nice weather without the high velocity winds which are usually common this time of year. There are plenty of King Mackerel around including some smokers. Yesterday we had a 41 lber which was caught on 15lb test line. Blackfin Tuna also remain around- they have been averaging 20lbs. Also plenty of Mutton Snapper from schoolie fish of 5-6 lbs up to full grown fish of 15-16 pounds. The wrecks are holding good numbers of Amberjack and a few African Pompano. Overall the water quality has been poor with green off color water predominating. As a result, Sailfish, Wahoo and Dolphin have been scarce.

Solid winter fishing continues in Key West with a mix of Sailfish, most caught off the kite, Blackfin Tuna, King Mackerel and Mutton Snapper. Some very large Kings are in the area-on a trip to the west our Kings averaged 35lbs, and a 67lber was caught during last weekends tournament. Yesterday we caught a triple header of Sailfish-from an anchored boat and also 2 African Pompano.

Fishing remains excellent here in Key West. A mix of Tuna, King Mackerel, Cero, Mutton Snapper, Cobia and Sailfish have kept us busy with plenty of rod bending action over the last week.

We have been on a nice roll the last week or so catching Sails in the morning and then Tuna’s or snappers later in the day. Two days ago we had 3 Sails in the morning and then anchored down in 185′ and caught another Sail out there as well as 6 big Mutton Snappers, these fish were all over 12 lbs. The following day on an afternoon 1/2 day we caught 5 20lb Tuna, 1 big Mutton and a bunch of Cuda’s.