Fishing Key West

Key West Dolphin Fishing

Admin — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 11:39:42 +0000

These fish are very popular with anglers for several reasons. One is their white flakey meat. Secondly they put up a great fight on light tackle, jumping out of the water numerous times before being subdued. They often run in schools especially when they are smaller sized, so often if you hook one, you will immediately hook another.
Often with the smaller schooling fish anglers will keep one of the fish in the water , while other anglers pick off his buddies. The school will follow the one hooked and distressed fish, this enables the anglers to get multiple shots at fish before the school leaves.
Frankly another major reason people like to fish for dolphin is they dumb. They grow extremely fast like a 1-1.5 feet a year. That’s fast. That means giant dolphin you see some guys holding in a photo is probably only 3-4 years old and is a old dolphin. They are believed to only live 3-4 years. This high growth rate means they need to eat all the time and everything they see. Which means they are very easy to catch.
Fishing for dolphin is 95% finding them, getting them to bite is almost never a problem. In fact smaller dolphin will attack anything they see moving that will fit in their mouth. Sometimes they will attack things that won’t fit in their mouth. They will eat artificals, live baits, dead baits, whatever. The larger fish can be more finicky.
Trolling for dolphin is a very popular way to fish for them, it enables the anglers to cover a lot of ground looking for the fish. “running and gunning” is another popular way to fish dolphin. This were you essentially run fast and look for debris in the water, then when you find something slow down and troll or toss baits at it. Dolphi swim all over but they will congregate around floating debris. Weed lines of sargasm are their natural habitat but anything floating can hold them. Pieces of garbage like an old pallet, a knot of ropes, a tarp anything really can hold bait in the deep water and in turn hold dolphin.
Trolling for dolphin is usually done at speeds 6-10 knots. They will hit naked ballyhoo, jet heads, islanders, feathers and other artificial. When trolling a ballyhoo they don’t even have “swim” they can skipping on the surface. In general they are not that picky, covering a lot of ground and finding the schools is more key then the actual presentation.

Key West Tarpon Fishing

Admin — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 16:19:00 +0000

Key West tarpon fishing is primarily done in spring and early summer. Now there resident tarpon all around Key West all year but like I said the really good tarpon fishing is in spring. Although some of the tarpon fishing is done on the flats most of it is done in the harbor and channels that connect to the harbor. The water depth and lack of above water obstructions enable people with all size boats to fish comfortably. Many places further north in the keys people fish for tarpon around the bases of bridges and a smaller center console or flats boat needs to be used. In Key West large sport fish boats offer tarpon trips to the harbor in addition to the smaller boats.

Tarpon are caught usually using heavy spinning gear on live or dead bait. Some purists target them on the fly but most people don’t. Favorite baits for tarpon are mullet, crabs, pinfish and squid. Although in Key West shrimp boat trash is often used. Shrimp boat trash is the bi-catch that shrimpers end up with when dragging for shrimp. It consists of all kinds of small dead sea creatures. This is tossed behind the boat for awhile and once the tarpon get used to eating it, you send out a peice with a hook in it.

Tarpon can be caught all day but the most productive times are early morning, evening and night.

Key West Flats Fishing

Admin — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 15:16:36 +0000

One of the popular ways to fish in Key West and the Keys is sight fishing on the flats. Primary fish targeted fishing on the flats are permit, tarpon and bonefish. Other fish that also often targeted at barracuda , sharks, and jacks.

The waters surrounding the keys in many places do not get deep for quite awhile, creating acres and acres of shallow saltwater flats. These flats can be hard bottom, mud or grass. Many of these flats around Key West have channels running through them for example Calda channel.

Anglers can target fish by sight in these shallow waters , kind of more like hunting then fishing. A flats boat is used with a poling platform in the back. The guide will stand on this poling platform and push the boat along silently with a pole. The noise of an electric engine will spook fish like bonefish and permit in these shallow waters.

Light tack or fly gear is then used primarily for bonefish, permit, and barracuda. All these fish put up a tremendous fight on light tackle. Bonefish and permit are considered the most elusive and prestigious. If its a bad day, bad conditions, fish not biting etc usually barracudas and sharks will bite when nothing else will.

Here is a video by Lenny Leonard catching barracuda on the flats

About Key West Fishing

Admin — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 14:54:11 +0000

Key West is a small tropical island located at the the southern most tip of the United States. Key West boasts some of the most varied fishing in the United States. In addition to great fishing , diving and snorkeling Key West has a vibrant night life and numerous land based activities the whole family can enjoy.