Alright everyone, finally heading down to the keys next saturday. Anyone have any recent reports. Hoping to spear some dolphin and catch some tuna. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!
get a block of chum. the ballyhoos are going to be on the patch reefs all over the place and while your chumming get some 2/0 and 5/0 MUTU light wire circle hooks and catch your yellowtails and try for muttons at the same time on 20 lb gear and use some 40lb test for the 5/0's with a good chunk of ballyhoo or a sardine.. the bouys and lights hold cigar minows and speedos also and make great bait. get a top spot chart kit or look up as many wrecks you can before you get there. the keys radio station 103.5 has good rock and fishing reports. you can also go to your marine weather and get the offshore gulfstream location. some no alibi jigs work great also for yellowtails with a shrimp frozen ones are fine. the edges anywhere from 35'- 240' hold grouper and snappers and they eat jigs. have a blast and make up some 60lb test leaders before ya get there! the sandbar is a great place to have a beer and look at the scenery. the kingfish are there also so 5 wire and a treble hook work great for them.
Awesome thats perfect for the reef stuff, then just work outside the reef in the stream for the dolphin? Hopefully get a chance to run out to the hump.
Thanks for the info your always a valuable source!
if you go to the hump I want you to take any rapala like lures you have with good hooks and run them ... you don't need to go real fast but it works also... same with bucktail jigs. If I knew you were coming down I would have had you hit Bimini with us friday- monday... but then again there is always next year! stop by ft lauderdale on your way back home
Just got back from Islamorada for a quick 3 day and the weather was less than cooperative. The winds were 20-25kts from the east resulting in 4-8' seas.
We ended up in Key West and blew off a little steam!
It's true about the Rapalas, they work fine. Use the flat sided styles and change the trebles to a little better quality hook. I also had talked to a guy a month ago and they're even trying the black worms like bass worms and trolling them slow as well. I hadn't tried that but who knows!
Man I would have loved to come over to Bimini... but we fly in Sat morning! I will defintely keep that in mind though and thank you a ton for the offer.
As for the rapalas.. how big a lip andhow deep running are we talking here? The tuna seem to love them? Do you mean troll buck tail jiggs too or just toss them into schools?
The worms, any idea on how they were rigg'in them up? All the info is greatly appreciated. Hopefully the weather will cooperate for us while we are down!
the raps need to go almost as fast as you can 2-7 knots ... just don't beat yourself and have them skipping out of the water. My wife picks up gummy worms at publix grocery store when we go down and she steals a bass lead or a small egg sinker and ties everything right on the 60lb test. you can get in a corner and let it sink also. regular bucktails work great Yellow, green and white seem to work well along with the new abyss jigs. throw out a cpl hoos on top on flat lines when your drifting / jigging... you never know what will happen!