Spring is finally here!!!  I’ve heard that everyone up north has been getting pounded with cold winter blasts lately.  Here in the Keys, it was one of the coldest Marches I can remember in a long time.  This doesn’t make for easy fishing.   The fish in the Keys waters are like the people.  Once they’ve acclimated to the warm waters, they tend to like to stay warm.  Once we get a normal spring pattern with predominant east winds, the water temperatures will warm up.   That means the fish will start biting better too.  

It’s not that the fish aren’t biting, it is just been hard to find a consistent bite on a regular basis.  Nearly every day in March, the winds were blowing from a different direction.  This makes it hard for the fisherman to develop a pattern on what to do.  The good thing about this time of year is the huge variety of fish that can be found.  On any given day you can catch nearly 10 to 20 types of fish.  

One of the more productive fisheries when it is cold is dropping on the deep reefs.  You never know what you are going to hook.  On a good day we would catch a nice mess of porgies and tilefish to go along with a good size snowy grouper.  We even managed to catch other crazy species like the long fin seabass that Shannon is holding in a picture.  It just might be one of the prettiest fish I’ve ever caught.  The best method to target these fish is to pick a calm day.  The biggest challenge is the current.  We typically use a chicken rig with about 12 oz give or take, depending on the drift.  Squid and small live baits work the best.  

And while you are dropping, be on the lookout for working birds.  Several times we were able to locate a school of feeding dolphin.  Quite often you can be lucky enough to have the dolphin just swim up to you. They are a very curios fish.  So I suggest having a few small spinning rods ready to go just in case.

All I can say is I’m glad April is finally here, and hopefully the fishing will get back to what it should be.  I really love the potential the month of April brings to the Keys.  On the calm days we can go target the deep water fish like vermilion snappers. And if it”s windy the cobia and sailfish have a tendency to tail along the current edges.  It is a fun way to sight fish for these fish.   The warmer winds also bring the beginning to dolphin season.  Last year at this time we were having really nice catches of dolphin and wahoo.  It hasn’t happen here yet, but it will be soon.  The best bet is to find a good weed edge or piece of floating debris.  This month is also the best month to look for working frigate birds.  Most of the dolphin will be feeding on the abundance of flying fish in our waters.  And until the sooty terns show up, us fisherman need to rely on the frigates as our bird dogs.  

The wreck fishing is also a great bet for the spring time, too.   We’ve been catching some nice jacks and mutton snappers on live bait.  The permit will also start showing up once the water temperatures start to warm up.  Last week we managed to catch a nice African Pompano.  The cooler temperatures have help produce a decent kingfish bite as well.  The hardest thing is to try and get a live well full of good baits.  But, once you do the action isn’t far behind.

I hope everyone can get out and enjoy our beautiful waters here in the Florida Keys.  

Captain Brian Cone

Share this:

It’s hasn't been a typical winter here in the Florida Keys. I think we can blame it on global warming or the fact the Pluto is not as large as it used to be. Or whatever theory the scientist will come up next. Anyhow, the warmer temperatures haven’t slowed the fishing down one bit. In fact, it makes it easier to catch live bait on a regular basis. And if you have fished with me, you know how important good live bait is for a great day of fishing most of the time.

There remains a large amount of ballyhoo on the reef line. This can make for exciting fishing when the sailfish, tuna and dolphin are showering them. We've found that most of the sailfish have become really educated. Now it takes a lot of good technique to trick them into biting. A little bit of luck helps too. We managed to catch between 5 and 7 sails last week on light spinning rods 4 days in a row. All the sails ate live ballyhoo and were released to be caught another day.

There have also been a few nice blackfin tuna as well as good size dolphin under frigate birds. The strong east winds have been the best days to catch them. They have been feeding on flying fish in the 100 to 300 ft range. Ballyhoo or pilchards have been the best bait to get a bite.

The best bet in February is cobia. This month is without a doubt the best month to catch a big cobia in our waters. We typically will find cobia this time of year following large mud rays in hawk’s channel. Some schools have been upwards of 40 fish in a school. Sometimes you’ll have over 20 keepers to choose from. We've been lucky enough to catch some real trophy cobia for around here. In a one week period, we landed three cobia over 60 lbs with the largest tipping the scales at 70 lbs. Cobia are usually quite aggressive when found in large schools, due to the competition factor. So, a variety of baits work well. I prefer a live pinfish or grunt on a 3 to 5 oz leaded knocker rig. A 60lb leader and a sharp 7/0 hook are also important to have if you want a good chance of landing a big boy. These big fish will put up a great fight.

If you want to try your luck at reef fishing, it’s been surprisingly good. I typically never reef fish this month due to the cold water temperatures that shut the bite down. However, the water temps have been in the mid 70’s this month. This makes the yellowtail snapper and kingfish bite much better than normal for this time of year. We've been able to catch plenty of yellowtail and kingfish on nearly every trip we've tried. Some nice cero mackerel and grouper have also been an added bonus.

I also need to congratulate our lady anglers on winning the Islamorada Lady’s Sailfish Tournament this past weekend, and also getting second in the Poor Girls Sailfish Tournament the week before. It was a great finish to our sailfish tournament season.

Come on down for a fun day on the water. I look forward to a good spring time condition with a good dolphin, wahoo and sailfish bite.

Tight lines

Capt Brian Cone

Share this: