Florida Keys Fishing

Key Largo Wreck Fishing

Well finally got back out on the water today.

I decided to try the Northern lights wreck; we hit the bait spot and caught some ballyhoo and Baby Bar jacks, then headed out to the wreck. The ballyhoo are actually starting dry up bit, it took more then couple minutes to load up, in addition to being less numbers they appear smaller.

Took 3 tries to get a decent anchor position, and finally we lined up decent. Boy is that pain pulling the anchor from 180 feet, 3 times in a row. The current is almost dead slack the chum is almost going straight down.

We soon had at least a hundred bar jacks and rainbow runners behind the boat, along with a school of Speedos.

But for most of the day nothing was really biting, except barracudas, sharks, bar jacks and rainbow runners. The first shark I got was a maybe a 6 foot sand bar shark, and it pretty much destroyed my shimano 6500, I had the drag cranked down and suddenly something in reel popped and now it skips while reeling it in. Have to take if somewhere to see what happened.

There were tuna breaking around the boat, not sure if they were just bonito or what some of them looked 20+ pounds. They would not hit anything I threw at them. Maybe I should lose the wire and use light fluorocarbon? I was more expecting kingfish then tuna.

At one point there where a hand full of big yellowtails mixed in with bar jacks etc, my girlfriend broke one off on 12 pound line or something grabbed it, then she landed one on 20 pound line, I had forgotten to bring an extra bottom fishing pole, don’t know what I was thinking. So I started dropping ballyhoo on the wreck with 20 pound line, broke off about 4 fish in row, then landed a 30 inch black grouper and called it day

The weather is absolutely beautiful out there; going to hit again tomorrow, and bring a conventional reel spooled with 100# test.

Wreck fishing day #2

Went back to our usually bait spot, and the ballyhoo were pretty uncooperative. We actually had to to try another spot further inshore. Caught a few ballyhoo, and ended up grabbing a bunch of grunts for bait.

By the time we got to the wreck there was like 4 boats drifting over it. I tried to anchor a little was up current , out of the way of the boats, but the anchor didn’t stick so essentially I just looked like an idiot. The current is flying today, but the wind is dead slack.

We already have plenty of meat in the fridge from yesterday, so I figured I would just try more for sharks, I brought a big penn senator with me today spooled with 100 pound ande line. On our first drift over the wreck I dropped down a 14 inch bar jack on 10/0 circle hook. Something grabbed him and got into the wreck. After some re-rigging I dropped a grunt and somebody got him too, more then likely I got him snagged. Third pass with a grunt hooks up, with something solid. Hooking a shark with 100 pound conventional gear is a whole different feeling then fishing for them in the bay with 20 – 50 pound line on spinning gear. In bay they run out a hundred yards of line and tire themselves out. This is more like just tying your self to a shark with a rope. There is very little give, with drag down pretty tight. I read that having the drag set at over 25 pounds of resistance will require you to sit down if the fight lasts long. This fight didn’t last that long maybe 10 minutes max, but it felt pretty brutal, almost masochistic. It was great. I love fishing when it actually feels like physical work out. After about ten minutes I got him to side of the boat, he wasn’t even that big maybe 6 foot tops, pulling him up from 200 feet down had me sweating and light headed in the heat.

I had to take a breather, but I dropped another grunt down, while I rested. Like a second later the pole bent over and I was on anther fish. This time it was smaller, after some initial pulls it calmed down. I thought to myself it’s a fish not a shark. After a few minutes up came a fat red grouper, of around 20 pounds. After that I didn’t put out anymore baits on the bottom, we had more then enough meat to last for awhile. I free lined some ballyhoo behind the boat. But other then a bonito checking them out no real action so we called it a day.

Sprigger Bank Fishing

Sprigger Bank is located on the eastern edge of Florida Bay, next to the border
of the Everglades National Park. The Bank and the surrounding areas are teeming
with fish and it definitely a spot worth checking out if you have your boat
or rental boat in the area. Sprigger Bank is located almost due north of the
Long Key Bridge.

In the warmer months there are many mangrove snappers, baby jewfish
and baby gag groupers, sea trout and of course catfish galore. In the winter
months those same species are there but are sort of eclipsed by the massive
numbers of blue fish, Spanish Mackerel and tons of sharks.

Usually I fish with 12 pound spinning rods using small jigs tipped
with cut fish or shrimp for the small fish, a pinfish out on cork, and then
usually a shark bait with a big steel leader, on a big spinning reel loaded
with 50 pound test braid.

For more information check out Florida-Keys-Fishing.org