Author: Flying Fish Charters
Key West Fishing In February
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.
If you can’t get out on the Atlantic side this weekend due to to the wind, try going in Gulf. That will be protected side if the wind starts coming from the southeast. Winter can be great to fishing in the Gulf, it is usually the best time to target cobia. Cobia are interesting fish, sometimes they are on the bottom, sometimes they swim on the surface, and sometimes they swim right to the boat to check it out. Point being; make sure you cover all your bases and have a pitch rod ready for the fish that swims up to the boat. For my cobia pitch rod, I like to have a medium size spinning set up, lined with 30lb Bullbuster Braid. Il like to use 40lb fluorocarbon leaders with a strong 4/0 offset J hook. Kingfish, snappers, jacks and bonitas, can be around the gulf wrecks as well. If you see any shrimp boats out there; you can go check out what’s swimming behind them.
The fishing in the backcountry has started to warm up a bit the past few days. The barracuda bite continues to be great in the shallows, but with the rising water temperature we started to see a few bonefish as well. It the cold fronts stay away; you may start to see the first early push of tarpon for the year. The fishing in the basins has still been great too, with trout, jacks, pompano and snapper. Look for the mud slicks in the basins and the birds will be diving all around too.
We hope that you enjoyed this article on the Bullbuster community! Our mission is to help millions of anglers spend more time fishing and that starts with YOU!
The next time that you need fishing line, join a movement by buying your fishing line brand direct here on Bullbuster.net!
