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Key West Fishing Report - Offshore
Capt. Ralph Delph
March 15, 2001
Key West - Saltwater Fishing Report
The fishing has been so good that it has been difficult to find the time for a fishing report, but here goes. The Gulfstream has pushed up to the face of the reef from the Dry Tortugas to at least American Shoals. This has brought an abundance of blackfin tuna and bonito as well as good numbers of sailfish. Those using live pilchards as chum and bait have enjoyed some fast and furious action (although pilchards have been hard to find). Large numbers of blackfin tuna have been busting baby flying fish early in the mornings causing the sun to glisten from the backs of the flying fish, giving the illusion of flocks of birds in the low light. The trolling boats have been doing good on the sails as well. Chicken dolphin have been showing up in big numbers as weed lines form at the current rips.
The first of the big permit are starting to show but have been reluctant to eat as the water temperature has been around 73 degrees in the areas where they spawn. However some really large cobia have made their show and some cobia in the 70’s and even 80’s have been taken lately. Chuck Berry landed a 71# cobia on 10# spinning tackle and not to be outdone, Marty Arostegui landed an 81.5# cobia on 15# plug tackle.
The bottom fishing has slowed somewhat, however those persistent enough to work for their catch have been rewarded with some fine catches of red snappers as well as scamp, red and black groupers. The Snappers have been running up to around 18# and the grouper have been running from 6 to 20 pounds. Yellowtail have been only fairly abundant due to the strong east bound current.
The Harbor has been providing some good action on tarpon for those using shrimp boat chum. The main show of tarpon have not shown as of yet, though it should be any day now. Cobia should make their appearance in the harbor as well.
The flats has been red hot with large and very large sharks. Allen Cepenski, 11 years old, hooked his first shark on fly recently and after a great fight that lasted nearly an hour and a half, the shark was tail gaffed, where it promptly destroyed the gaff and escaped, leaving Allen with only memories. The shallow water boys have reported some tarpon as well as good numbers of permit and cudas to fill in the blank spaces.
That’s it for now. Tight lines and good fishing.
Capt. Ralph Delph
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