People always ask what is the best month to come down to the Keys fishing. That depends on the weather and the fish. May is typically the best month for everything, decent weather and good fishing, but weather is weather and fish are fish, so you never really know until you get here. June is probably the second best month if you are looking for big dolphin in a smaller boat.
This past week though both the fishing and the weather was on the weak side. We did get an offshore trip with good conditions, 10 to 15 knot winds with most of the day closer to 10 knots and we found plenty of decent size dolphin. We managed to pull the hooks on the biggest so the day didn't look that great at the dock, but the crew had a good time and we had the banana excuse for the missed fish. Since I was on the flybridge I got a good view of all the fish we missed. Nothing humongous, but lots of fish in the high teens to low twenties meandering down weed trickles while the hoards of peanuts jumped the baits. When that happens you have to guess right on your bait. The larger fish hit whole or half Ballyhoo pitch baits and passed on the chunks. Pinfish would have most likely been the ticket, but since the crew was having fun with the small fish, some keepers most not, and the weeds were not well formed, we never got a weed free pinfish in front of a large enough fish to find out.
The weeds were not well formed thanks to a Southeast wind that spread the slicks out. It made trolling so tough that wandering from one large weed patch to the next was more productive than trolling. Sometimes the bigger fish would show sometimes not. We found most of the fish in the 650 to 700 foot range but I heard of people picking up a good fish here and there all over the place. No one I know of hammered big fish this week.
The next two days though the Southeast wind picked up to 20 plus knots and fishing pretty much sucked. Most of the action is on the ocean side and most of my customers were stuck with the bridge and Bayside. For whatever reason, the red gumbo grass is thicker than normal so fishing requires much more work than it should near the bridge. If the boats were a bit bigger or the customers a bit more seaworthy, the rockpiles would have been the place to be since there are still nice fat porgies out there along with Grouper and Mutton snapper if you find the right pile. Mangroves are moving to the reef to spawn, so the Bayside and bridge were loaded with smaller fish, keepers not so much though. With lots of small fish, lots more gumbo and winds just high enough to make anchoring a PITA, yesterday was painful.
According to Windfinder, winds should get a bit more East and drop a bit bringing things back to normal, but weather men have been known to lie. Tarpon fishing is still good at Bahia Honda if you want to play bumper boats, but that is about the most consistent report I have. Marathon in the Florida Keys should be your next fishing vacation destination. Join us for charter fishing, fishing guide trips or our fishing 101 so you can fish on your own with better success.
Tight lines,
Capt. Dallas
