Fishing Report

We are reaching our peak winter time fishing off Key Largo. The Sailfish are here in strong numbers with multiple releases happening almost daily. We fished a three day tournament out of Key Largo last weekend. During the tournament there was a total of 510 Sailfishy releases between 50 boats. Thats an average of 10 fish per boat. Our boat ended up catching a total of 19 sailfish in which we finished 4th place. 21 releases was the winning total. The most popular method of Sailfishing in the Florida Keys is with live bait being slow trolled from outriggers or by flying kites with outrigger clips which enables you to suspend your bait right on top of the surface making it a deadly method of catching Sailfish. We are using circle hooks for the Sailfish and the hookup to catch ratio is phenomenal. In three days of fishing we hooked a total of 23 fish and landed 19. Thats an excellent return. There have been a few days where the wind has been blowing from the north and this wind against the current can make the Sailfish start surfing down the waves. You can look out at the waves and actually spot the sailfish swimming down the sea. Weve been seeing sometimes 5 to 10 fish swimming together on the good days. If you can get in front of them and pitch a live bait in the middle of the pack you are almost sure to get a bite. We are about in our peak sailfish season and we will continue to see strong numbers of fish through March and April.

  The wreck fishing off of Key Largo has also provided plenty of action. Mostly big Amberjack this time of year with mutton snappers mixed in. These amberjacks are strong fish and can wear down even the most expierienced angler. Fishing wrecks in 250 to 300 ft of water we are using big live baits such as 1 to 2 lb blue runneres. Once the bait hits the bottom the bite is almost instant. It can be very difficult to stop them even with 80lb standup tackle. We are seeing a good number of Kingfish around the reef with fish reaching the 20 to 30lb range. Fishing for Kingfish is very similar to the way we sailfish, however it is neccesssary to use wire leaders because these kingfish have razor sharp teeth and can cut any mono leader you put out there. There a fast fish with blistering runs on 20lb standup tackle.