Tag: goliath grouper

3/24/13 Key Largo Monster Fish!

Fishing wasn’t easy today here in key largo backcountry fishing.  Howling southwest winds of 25 knots!  We made our way into the bay and limited out on big seatrout though up to 20′.  Also lots of ladyfish which we use for cut bait, and a few snappers of the mangrove variety.  Shark fishing in key largo was productive lots of blacktips and blacknoses.  Though after a few of them we hooked a big 100 lb tarpon!  A welcome surprise, he stayed on the line and we chased him for a bit and eventually got him boatside.  It was great to see in the muddy water we were fishing due to the high winds, but you never know what you’ll catch when your on a key largo fishing charter so you need to get out there and try!  I’ve also got a picture here of a monstrous goliath grouper caught by a young 10 year old boy on a charter last week.  They also caught a big bull shark plus plenty of other rod benders!  The tarpon fishing in key largo may slow down for a few days as we have more cold weather unfortunately coming, but I don’t think for long and good news is after it leaves I think April the tarpon will really go off as they have been ready and waiting!!!

2/23/12 Key largo goliath grouper fishing!

We were after a key largo goliath grouper fishing today.  Fished near the edge of the gulf as it was too rough to get out there deeper to the wrecks.  Lots of action early whilst catching baitfish.  A mix of trout, ladyfish, and jacks were just about every cast.  Even a few  spanish mackerel, bluefish, and pompano making their presence known!  Key Largo shark fishing was on our minds too as we caught 4 medium sized blacktip sharks while doing all this.  After we were loaded up.. goliath time!  We hit the hole that I was thinking about… all of a sudden a bunch of cobias surrounded us!  I reeled in the surface pinfish and one ate it, my angler also pitched too one and he ate as well – doubled up!  Unfortunately his spit the bait/hook, but he reeled the other one in nicely.  A little bit later after chunking some ladyfish and waiting with the big rods both doubled over hard!  We gave chase leaving one fish behind with rod in holder.  Decided to switch the fish we were working on as the one behind did roll over, and my angler started fighting him.   After a few minutes there he was – big 150 lb goliath grouper on spin tackle.. nice catch!  Grouper fishing in Key Largo is fun for these big boys!  We then switched back to the other big fish which appeared to be a big ol’ sawfish.  Fought him a bit more and I leadered him up carefully – all on monofilament 100lb!  Got hit bill out of the water twice as he thrashed violently, 2nd time though he cut us off but at least we saw him and got a technical release!  After that we hit a high water spot for some redfish which proved productive… 10 or so reds mostly keeper size though all were released.

1/4/13 Key Largo Gulf Fishing Report

Hello friends and Happy New Year from keylargofishingreport.com.  It’s been great weather and great fishing in key largo as of late!  Today we did a mixed bag trip, starting out around the flamingo area in the key largo backcountry.  We caught several red drum, black drum, sheepshead on our first put stop.  Fishing the incoming tide while there was still a slight push of water.  On slack tide we hit an area known to hold some snook in it’s deeper moat.  We did hook one and lost him boatside, but also caught several sheepshead and more black drum.  The tide was falling now and we decided to do more variety fishing so we headed for some channel runoffs a little further west out towards the gulf.  We found a nice muddy cut and caught several trout, ladyfish, a few pompano, and a small permit!  Key largo trout fishing is excellent in areas such as this in the winter time.  We then headed out to some gulf wrecks, and spotted several tripletail on the way.  We caught some nice ones for dinner, which are excellent tablefare!  Upon arrival to the wrecks we put out a few pinfish on knocker rigs.  We caught several cobia, one nice fish of 15 lbs or so, great stuff for a key largo fishing report.  Also another permit a little bigger this time, as well as a 100 lb goliath grouper!  The tide this far out had already turned back in by now too at 1:00 in the afternoon.  We decided to run back towards south of key largo, off islamorada, and caught plenty of spanish mackerel while chumming.  A great end to a fabulous day of fishing key largo!