Month: March 2013

Another late cold front here in Key Largo has slowed some of the backcountry fishing down.  Water temperatures plummeted to some of the coldest we have had all year.  I kept my anglers on the fish consistently throughout the day though fishing the patch reefs the last several days.  That’s the nice thing about operating a larger, more comfortable ‘bay’ style boat.  The key largo patch reef fishing gives you a variety of targeted fish.  We’ve caught nice mangrove snappers, hogfish, and porgies – all a delicacy to eat!  Smaller mutton snappers and groupers have given anglers a good tug especially on light tackle, if you can keep them from going into the rocks!  A mix of smaller yellowtail, blue runners, chubs, and grunts keep children and adults entertained too.  We even caught a few small sharks out there too.  As we enter the april key largo fishing period hopefully we won’t have to deal with the cold anymore and the tarpon fishing will pick up.  That’s what we focus on in the spring and early summer.  Fishing for them should likely pick up as the waters get warmer, once they hit 70 bites should be had, 75+ however is ideal.  A key largo night tarpon fishing trip can be very productive and those are some of the only trips I have left available to offer as almost every day is booked the next couple months.  Give me a call I’ll let you know about the fishing!

It officially feels like spring here and today we did some spring key largo fishing.  Stopped this morning to try to find some mullets as they’ve started to show up in muds in the local bays.  Unfortunately got a bit of a late start, made a few throws and got a couple which proved to be enough.  Later on ran into the backcountry for some march key largo fishing and it was lots of action.  Trout, ladyfish, jacks, the usual cast of characters and just about every bait that hit the water was a fish.  What we like to do here on some of our key largo fishing charters this time of year is save the ladyfish for live and dead bait… the bigger predators such as sharks, tarpon, goliath grouper, and even big snook and redfish love to eat them.  We happened to see some tarpon rolling near by in the channel so we decided to anchor up there and give it a shot.  Put a mullet and ladyfish on the bottom, and within 10 minutes the mullet rod bent down – big 80 lb tarpon goes flying, he’s on!!!  We chase him down and get him boatside, but he went through the leader though a caught fish with the leader in the tip, I’ve included a picture of another tarpon caught of similar size the day before.  Later we caught a blacktip also on a mullet, but no other bites and the tarpon seemed to slow down as we didn’t see them rolling, so that was the end of march key largo tarpon fishing.  We proceeded into the gulf, where we caught plenty of tripletail including several nice keeper size ones.  We run the crab trap lines out here, certain areas the fish congregate and you pitch live shrimp on a cork at them.  Lots of fun sight fishing these critters.  We did see one key largo cobia fishing on structure, but did not get him to eat before he disappeared.  Well that was the day, get on down here for some good fishing… spring is here, so are the fish, it is time!

Well last night was my first official key largo tarpon fishing charter at night.  Tarpon often feed best at or near sunrise/sunset, or after dark as they are more nocturnal feeders.  We do many evening trips from 4:00 – 8:00/8:30 to try to get you on the water at ‘peak’ time.  Yesterday evening was my first official key largo night fishing trip targetting them.  We fished the local bridges and had several kinds of bait including crabs, pinfish, big shrimp, and cigar minnows.  We had a couple bites early anchored at one of the bridges, one was surely a tarpon that we didn’t get a hookset on that ate a minnow, the other not sure of on a big shrimp but likely a tarpon as the drag screamed for a good 2-3 seconds on a BG60.  We did end up catching a big nurse shark and a would-be legal size gag grouper off the bottom there.  Key Largo grouper fishing is closed season until May 1.  Anyhow around 7:00 the tide was slowing and we ran a little further back to the end of the channel as the falling tide would last longer there.  Saw a few fish roll as we pulled up for our first drift.  Didn’t hook up immediately  but on drift number 3 around 7:30 we got a good bite on a crab and we were on!  A nice 75 lb fish we got several nice jumps and runs out of, and had boatside within 20 minutes.  Not a bad night with 3 bites considering we had breezy north winds and cool air, which is usually not a good thing when targeting tarpon, though the tides and water temperature were favorable.  Anyways if your interested in tarpon fishing key largo at night then let me know, March can be a great time.  This year so far the tarpon fishing has been off and on with the late cold fronts, but as you can see if the conditions are right the fish are here and you won’t know unless you go out there and try!  Drop me a line and I’ll give you an honest opinion and I don’t really start heavily night fishing until April so can be ready to go short notice if you don’t want to commit!  Give march key largo tarpon fishing a try!

Also today the winds were howling out of the north, 20+mph.  Not an easy day to fish in the key largo backcountry fishing.  We made it out though comfortably in my 20′ seacraft and hid around some islands.  Caught some very nice mangrove snappers all 12+ inches, including this 17 incher which for the backcountry is a very nice snapper!  Some great dinner and fun on light tackle.  We tried fishing some muds but it was difficult in the wind/chop, though we did anchor for the last 30 minutes in a mud and caught a handful of big ladyfish for something different before heading in.

Well we still have some very chilly water in the key largo backcountry for march… 64 this morning.  We fished out near the gulfs edge around some banks and got some nice size trout and a couple pompano.  Had to really work around though one spot held some nice fish that rallied briefly.  Later we went further back around the mainland for some key largo tarpon fishing.  Put a couple cut baits on the bottom and a pinfish on top.  Never had a bite off the bottom as the sharks are dormant with the chilly water… but we did hook a nice 60+ lb tarpon on a 15 lb lighter spin rod.  The fish blew up on a live pinfish, we fought him for over an hour and got him boatside.  The fish made the day on our march key largo fishing charter.  We finished the day trying to find some hungry redfish though the water was fairly mudded up and of course still chilly, so not much luck there.  But did get into a mess of ladyfish, mixed in with a few more trout and spanish mackerel – which my clients were thrilled with!  The water temperatures should be reaching 70+ here soon and the tarpon are here, they will be much happier then.  If your interested in doing some tarpon fishing, March can be very good especially for the evening fishing – shoot me an email and I’ll be happy to let you know when will be good according to tides… which actually this week has favorable ones into sunset!

Caught this massive 45 lb cobia last week in the key largo backcountry while fishing for large sharks, tarpon, and other beasts.  If your looking to target cobia, march is a great time as well as April in the gulf of mexico… many of these fish swarm on the wrecks and are much fun!  We had one tarpon bite this day too however unfortunately we did not hook him.  Key largo tarpon fishing in march should improve as the weather stabilizes and water temperatures rise.  We are in the middle of a cold front as of now which will likely slow the tarpon fishing down the next several days as well as other big fish.  However things like spanish mackerel in the gulf are possible, or redfish/snook/trout in the everglades.  Key largo spanish mackerel fishing could light right back up, I haven’t been doing it much lately but may be giving it a try this week.  We also caught a big hammerhead shark on this mentioned trip, as well as several smaller blacktip sharks, and a big 300 lb ‘mud marlin.’  You never know what you might get on a key largo fishing charter.  On this trip to we had plenty of rod bending action for trout, ladyfish, pompano, jacks, mackerel, and blue fish.  You see the ladyfish and such are good for bait for bigger things, and the trout and others are great table fare if you want to have a local restaurant cook your meal at the days end!  I’m looking forward to some march key largo fishing!