Key Largo Last week - Mike you should arrive at peak time

GSOHunter

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
The weather was great last week. I managed to get out on our boat 3-4 times and then went out on a friends on Saturday. On Sunday we went out about 20 miles to 1000-1100' of water looking for birds and weed lines. We saw nothing and slowly headed back in. At around 200 feet we worked a weak weed line and it produced nothing. We headed in to the patch reefs and landed a nice 26" red grouper. We went out a couple more times to the patch reefs but only caught undersized yellowtail and grunts. We went fishing most nights from the dock and hooked up on nice nurse sharks and 9-11" mangrove snappers. My parents place is on Adams cut so most of the boats for the upper keys go in and out of there. No one really had much luck on the dolphin all week. On Saturday my last day there we headed out dolphin fishing again. We went out 25 miles to around 1300' of water and ran into a large school of birds circling and diving. We ran over it once with ballyhoo and quickly decided it was probably a school of tuna. We switched to Tuna plugs and ran over it a couple times with no luck. The birds all flew off in different directions. We then started blindly trolling for a bit and I caught my first ever dolphin. It was around 6-7lbs but a fun catch. We found some nice rip's and trolled those for a while and hooked up on another small dolphin. This one had friends and we were able to catch some but there were still more in the water and the bite just turned off. No matter what we tried they would not hit it. We decided to move on and at that point we discovered we had drifted all the way up to 25 miles east of Elliot key which is in southern dade county. We decided to head back. We found another bucket in about 200-250' of water and caught 2 dolphin off that and then headed in. All in all it was a good day. 50 gallons of fuel and over 100 miles of travel. lol

The dolphin should be better when Mike gets down there in June. The Tarpon really haven't started biting either but should fire up in the next couple of weeks.
 

Mike Noles aka conman

Administrator
Staff member
Contributor
Thanks for the update. We'll be fishing out of Islamorada June 10 - 18, so we're hoping to hit the tarpon bite dead center. We'll do some reef fishing and night time sharks, also. Got a new 12wt fly rod I want to break in :D.
 

manybeards

Ten Pointer
Tarpon are really starting to heat up in Key West harbor....... Headed down Friday and we'll be setting the pin fish traps as soon as we get there. Probably head to a couple of our nearshore Mangrove Snapper spots and load up for dinner. Can usually count on limits of fish that average 16-18 inches.
 

GSOHunter

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
Check out Pat Ford on facebook. His favorite thing to do is Tarpon Fishing. He got some nice footage behind a shrimp boat last weekend in Key West. Tons of Tuna, Sharks and then he had some diving with a Whale Shark.
 

GSOHunter

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
Looks like I will be down in Miami Thursday- Sunday. Will probably spend Saturday down in Key Largo. Hoping the seas calm down.
 

Mike Noles aka conman

Administrator
Staff member
Contributor
We're heading out for Islamorada on Thursday. Hoping to get in to a few tight lines and just as many island beverages and meals ;):):cool:.
 

GSOHunter

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
Mike come on up to our place tomorrow night for some drinks. Tons of big sharks to try and catch in the cut from the dock.
 

Markfromflorida

Eight Pointer
Glad to see that some of you guys get down to the keys! I go at least once a year. My wife and I rented a house for the entire month of august! Im chomping at the bit to quit work, play in the keys for a month, then start a new life up in North Carolina!
 

Mack in N.C.

Old Mossy Horns
The weather was great last week. I managed to get out on our boat 3-4 times and then went out on a friends on Saturday. On Sunday we went out about 20 miles to 1000-1100' of water looking for birds and weed lines. We saw nothing and slowly headed back in. At around 200 feet we worked a weak weed line and it produced nothing. We headed in to the patch reefs and landed a nice 26" red grouper. We went out a couple more times to the patch reefs but only caught undersized yellowtail and grunts. We went fishing most nights from the dock and hooked up on nice nurse sharks and 9-11" mangrove snappers. My parents place is on Adams cut so most of the boats for the upper keys go in and out of there. No one really had much luck on the dolphin all week. On Saturday my last day there we headed out dolphin fishing again. We went out 25 miles to around 1300' of water and ran into a large school of birds circling and diving. We ran over it once with ballyhoo and quickly decided it was probably a school of tuna. We switched to Tuna plugs and ran over it a couple times with no luck. The birds all flew off in different directions. We then started blindly trolling for a bit and I caught my first ever dolphin. It was around 6-7lbs but a fun catch. We found some nice rip's and trolled those for a while and hooked up on another small dolphin. This one had friends and we were able to catch some but there were still more in the water and the bite just turned off. No matter what we tried they would not hit it. We decided to move on and at that point we discovered we had drifted all the way up to 25 miles east of Elliot key which is in southern dade county. We decided to head back. We found another bucket in about 200-250' of water and caught 2 dolphin off that and then headed in. All in all it was a good day. 50 gallons of fuel and over 100 miles of travel. lol

The dolphin should be better when Mike gets down there in June. The Tarpon really haven't started biting either but should fire up in the next couple of weeks.

nice work, if you ever have the time exploring Elliot key watch for Mexican Grey squirrels which are actually black.....released on there years ago and they have taken a liking to that key. got my first tarpon down there ths time last year.
 

Mike Noles aka conman

Administrator
Staff member
Contributor
We have caught some real monsters but all of the big tarpon have been caught fishing the falling tides at night between plantation key and post card. We've hooked 18, landed 9 and the best was a 7 foot, 180# class fish. I'll get pics posted when we get back.
 
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GSOHunter

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
We have caught some real monsters but all of the big tarpon have been caught fishing the falling tides at night between plantation key and post card. We've hooked 18, landed 9 and the best was a 7 foot, 180# class fish. I'll get pics posted when we get back.

Nice! Glad you guys caught some nice ones.
 

Crappie_Hunter

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
I'm on HWY 1 a few miles S of Homestead now! Hope you saved a few fish for me!!


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