Besides the weather, everything here in the Florida Keys is starting to heat up including the water and most of all the fishing. Since Captain John is currently in the Dry Tortugas beating up on some bottom fish he asked me to take on the fishing report for this week. I spoke with Captain John briefly yesterday afternoon while he was in between trips and he says everything is going well and that he will have a full Dry Tortugas fishing report next week.
We can start off with the offshore side of things. In the beginning of the week we had a nice edge move in from the Gulfstream. And when I say edge it was everything we look for including birds, bait, blue/green water color changes and stacked up rips to show the current all around. Most of all it was stacked up with Dolphins, Dorados or Mahi Mahis whatever you want to call them they are here. Along with the Dolphins on the edge the Sailfish are passing through with every boat getting a shot or two a day with some boats seeing as many as five. Working our way inshore into 110′ to 130′ the King Mackerals have been around. Our King bite did seem to slow up a bit from the past month but the quality fish are here all ranging from 15-25 pounds. It seems that every day we are getting a nice surprise of a Mutton Snapper or even a big Yellowtail Snapper on our downrigger while trolling. Inside on the reef we have been fighting some bad conditions of wind against current, crystal clear water or just lack of current but we always manage to put a good catch together. Farther inshore from that on the bait patches the Cigar Minnows have been around with lots of Pilchards and occasionally the Ballyhoos will make the wrong move so we can get a net over them.
Now onto the Backcountry! I got out back one day with Captain Jeff, which was my first time and it was quite the experience. Jeff wanted to do a little bit of scouting for some new places for the year and it paid off. Sight casting for Redfish on light tackle is a blast, and when you hook a 30" Black Drum on 10 pound line you’re in for a great fight. Captain Jeff has focused all of his efforts in the past two days Tarpon fishing doing a 4 hour morning and 4 hour afternoon/evening. From what it sounds like the Whale Harbor bridge has been producing good numbers in the morning and the Channel 5 bridge in the afternoon.
Tight lines, Captain Joe Bonvetti