Author: Flying Fish Charters
Key West February Fishing Report
Well after all the wind this week, it looks like its going to start laying down this weekend. It will still be a little bumpy out there with the wind around 15 mph, but it is not calling for any rain around the lower keys. The offshore bite continues to be steady with good dolphin and tuna action. Thee have been some weed lines and other scattered weeds, that is where most of the dolphin can be found. Most of the tuna are being caught around the offshore wrecks or outer reef areas. There are a few sailfish being caught here and there, but that bite hasn’t really picked up yet this year.
Fishing out in the gulf has been great and if that wind turns a little southeast this weekend, you may want to head out that direction. Some of the shallower reef areas in the gulf have have been producing mangrove snappers, porgys, red grouper and spanish mackerel. As you move out deeper, there have been big schools of jack crevalles and bonitas chasing bait fish around. These guys will just about eat anything, especially a fast moving artificial lure. If you like action and hard fighting fish, you can catch these fish until your arms are ready to fall off. Snapper fishing on the wrecks has been great, with nice size lane snappers and mangrove snappers. Some big kingfish and big cobia have been hanging around the deeper gulf wrecks as well. When I am fishing for the cobia, I like using a heavier spinning set up, with 40lb Bullbuster braid and a long 50lb Bullbuster fluorocarbon leaders. The cobia can get big and there are also some big bull sharks around the wrecks. The longer you fight these fish, the better chance of a shark finding them, so get them in as quick as possible.
Backcountry fishing remains excellent as well. There are still tarpon around, but it has been a harder to get them to eat with the wind being up. The tarpon fishing may be great this weekend, once the wind starts to come down. We should still see some tarpon schools showing up until we get another cold front and that will shut them down and push them to deeper water. The barracuda fishing on the flats has been excellent, they have been aggressive and there are some nice size fish around. The backcountry basins still offer plenty of action like jacks, ladyfish, snappers and trout.
Other Key West Fishing Reports From This February
First Week Of February Fishing Key West
Welcome back to the lower keys fishing report, the weather for this weekend is looking decent. It is calling for bright sunshine, but the wind is going to be up around 15-20 mph out of the east/southeast. Getting offshore will be sporty this weekend with the wind direction being from the south, but fishing has been great if you can get out. A lot of dolphin and blackfin tuna were around with a few sailfish mixed in. A few weed lines had pushed in offshore and that is where all the dolphin were caught. Fishing the offshore wrecks was good as well, with mutton snappers, red snappers, amberjacks and tunas. We caught all those fish on live pilchards, but the snappers were eating on the bottom and the tunas were eating up higher in the water column.
Key West Fishing (2nd Week of February 2018)
Overall, the fishing has been awesome here in the lower keys and weather for this weekend is really looking great. The forecast is calling for bright sunshine and 10-15 mph winds out of the east. The dolphin bite offshore has been good, its rare to catch them like this in February, but we have had warm weather and there have been weed lines offshore. The tuna bite offshore has been good as well. Guys have been catching them on the troll or using live baits. The wahoo have also showed up coming off this full moon. They tend to congregate around structure, so you can find them around wrecks or certain areas around the reef.
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