Middle Keys Fishing Reports

[JunoChris]

We spent 8 days in Big Pine over the Thanksgiving week. We mostly went out on the boat, a small boat about 18. Out there we caught a lot of yellowtails, mangroves, a few muttons, a few grouper and a bunch of ceros. We didnt catch any sharks out there but we did see a bunch of them while spearing and while swimming at Looe Key.
We fished the westside of 7 mile two mornings. As many yellow jacks there was you wanted to catch, we got a limit of grovers each morning (three people) and we caught four hogsnapper all of decent size on the same slack tide. There were tarpon there but they werent very interested in eating and we only managed to jump two of them. The coolest thing of the trip was the Sawfish I saw there, I followed it around for a while and we got some real good pictures of it. I couldnt get that thing to pick up a shark bait for anything, and it was a fresh half of a yellow jack.

We did a lot of drinking, eating fish, and hanging out on Duval street. I will throw a couple pics of that sawfish on here when they get developed.

[fishnfool73]

Great report JUNO....

[PhishingPhanatic]

Nice report. What were the yellow jacks hitting? Were you fishing No Name Bridge on Saturday afternoon 11/22 by chance?

[JunoChris]

The yellow jacks were hitting just about anything. We got some on live pins, live shrimp, and even on mackeral jigs.
Yea we walked out on No Name for a few minutes before going to the Pub. It was the first time I have ever been to the pub and I have to say that place is way overrated, no liquer, two TV's that you can barely see, and the prices are out of control. I liked Jack Flats on Duval a lot better to watch a game.

[WhoDey]

Rory and I cruised past you twice, I said hey that looks like Juno Chris (we had meet at the shark tourney party) we turned around and cruised back through and looked closer but were just uncertain enough to stop and say hi.

[fishnfool73]

No Name pub is under new ownership that live off the old reputation.

[diggin4grouper]

edited

[PhishingPhanatic]

Fished Ch 2 with WhoDey Friday night before the cleanup, was pretty slow, ended up with 3 keeper grovers and a keeper yellowtail. Got rocked up a few times by what were probably grouper. Tons of bait (pilchards and threadfins at night and ballyhoo in the AM) around. Went to another bridge after the cleanup and just got 1 cero on one of Islandflyfisher's jigs, and several cutoffs.

[Green Tide]

Glad to hear the bait is still there.

[cudaman]

Chris it must have been a great sight to see that sawfish.


Rory, nice job on the snappers and the cero. Thank you for helping me land my bait. I hope I will catch something nice with it on Tuesday or Wednesday.

[BRunner346]

Chris it must have been a great sight to see that sawfish.


Rory, nice job on the snappers and the cero. Thank you for helping me land my bait. I hope I will catch something nice with it on Tuesday or Wednesday.

sawfish?! musta been a great sight!

[islandflyfisher]

Went to another bridge after the cleanup and just got 1 cero on one of Islandflyfisher's jigs, and several cutoffs.

Did you take a pic of the cero by any chance? I still have a lot of jigs to sell. I want to post as many pics up as possible as 'proof' that they work.

How did you like the action? Any constructive criticism or anything? I want to make the best possible jig.

[PhishingPhanatic]

Went to another bridge after the cleanup and just got 1 cero on one of Islandflyfisher's jigs, and several cutoffs.

Did you take a pic of the cero by any chance? I still have a lot of jigs to sell. I want to post as many pics up as possible as 'proof' that they work.

How did you like the action? Any constructive criticism or anything? I want to make the best possible jig.

Sorry, I didn't take a pic, I was by myself at the time. I do have the cero in my bait freezer now, I can take one now for you if you want It was one of the heavier jigs, white, not sure of the exact weight, Rob (WhoDey) gave it to me to try, the action was good, I only got to take about 10 casts with it then it was cut off.

[WhoDey]

I only got to take about 10 casts with it then it was cut off.

My precious!

[islandflyfisher]

Thanks. I thought that was a pm.

[PhishingPhanatic]

Sorry for the long report, but I haven't posted one in a while...

Well, got the news Friday morning that my one of my favorite haunts had opened back up, and instantly had the itch to go, but I knew it would be hard to get a pass from my girlfriend as I had fished the Keys the past 4 weekends in a row. After a little negotiating, she agreed, and wanted to come for her first overnighter. A quick check of the weather forecast told me it would be COLD, so I made sure to pack lots of blankets, warm clothes, etc for her.

Finished my last appointment for the day at 3, forwarded all work calls to the cell phone, packed the girlfriend and the dog, and we were off. Made it to Long Key at about 6 and only saw 2 other cars in the parking lot...sweet! I was primarily targetting snapper and grouper, but brought some shark gear and bait from the freezer, which turned out to be a trip saver. First couple baits down quickly produced eels, not the target species, but I won't turn down shark bait. Gave my girlfriend a quick rundown on the shark gear and what she needed to do to help with the release. Sent a bait out on the 9/0 between the two bridges, and not 5 minutes later it is singing, let it eat, but apparently not long enough, as the eel just came back with the head. Pinned another eel on and put it back out, and get hooked up as I am letting the bait out. The fish felt heavy, made a quick run but then dead weight...crap, a big ole ~8 ft nurse.

Dropped one more bait out and got smoked with a very fast hit that felt like a blacktip, had him on for about 3 minutes then the hook pulled. Spend the rest of the night messing around with a few mangroves while the cold front came through, temperature dropped like a rock and then the wind was howling down the bridge.

Team Whooped showed up in the morning with a well full of livies, thanks for the bait guys. IM CHUMMING got a nice keeper black off a piling. Morning was very slow, just a few mangroves for me. Afternoon the current finally switched to outgoing and I put out some more shark baits as the snapper and grouper bite just wasn't happening for me. First was a 4-5 lb bluefish that had been in my freezer, it got hit as I was dropping it out and right away I knew it was a good fish. I still was using the 9/0 and even with a hammered down drag he was just making a slow, steady, powerful run out past the power poles, I just couldn't stop him. I could feel the line rubbing on the poles, and the inevitable happened, it popped. Rigged up again with a small jack that had been thawed and refrozen through 2 previous trips, and that got hit about 15 min later, got a 5-6 ft blacktip straight up.

Finished the afternoon with a surprise catch, a large octopus, about 5-6 lbs. I called Ricky as soon as I landed it, figuring he would be the authority on if it was good to eat and he gave me some great suggestions that I'll be trying tomorrow, so I decided to keep it. Overall had a good time, Melissa enjoyed her first overnighter as well and definitely wants to go again, but maybe not during a brutal cold front though

Only a couple pictures...

Octopussy


Raven keeping watch...

[PhishingPhanatic]

Bridge looks good, except that blacktop is going to get freaking hot during the day in the summer. The platforms are spread pretty far apart, and there is only one in the area I like to fish. It was unbelievable though, the bridge was pristine clean when we went out on it Friday night (we were probably one of the first people to fish on it) and when we made the hike back this afternoon, there was already garbage, broken glass, and sun dried grunts on the ground. One flaw is that the only garbage cans are on the platforms, so if you are not fishing on one of them, you have to pack your garbage out.

[cybereagle]

Really nice report. I think I'm heading down there around the 25th of this month. I know what it means to convince your spouse or GF to go fishing, it's not easy. By the way nice dog.

[fishnfool73]

Thank God Long Key is open and I might be able to fish my bridges again....

[cudaman]

Nice report man, thanks for the details...

[BRunner346]

no prob with the bait rory. we had enough for plenty of more people. we need to do it again

[ricky9]

anybody have any luck on long key this past weekend?...me and my bud spend friday night down there regardless of heavy winds and skunked out didnt even bother to fish the morning much but saw there was some jacks caught as we passed by people back to the car.

[nmpfly]

Hey guys, I got to Long Key bridge on Friday at around 11:30 in the morning. Twnety minutes later landed an 18" mutton and acouple of 12" mangrove. Than is slowed down. But about after an hour or so, I landed another keeper mutton. Between bites I met a man that lives acopule of blocks from the bridge and he gave me the heads up on the spots on the bridge. He was correct on all of them. Before I left at around 7:30 at night I had a total of 24 fishes in my cooler, all Keepers. Mangrove from 12 to 16 inches and I landed 2 more muttons. That was a good day of fishing.. For the muttons I was using a 12ft ugly stick with a penn 9500 and an 6oz sinker and casting right by the pillons of the electricity wires. Everything else was from the spots where the man told me.. Those I will keep to myself, sorry!! And be careful, the Monore county marine patrol came by twice checking coolers. They drove right on the bridge, first from south to the north, than about five hours later from the north to the south.
Well, If I go back this week again, I'll keep you guys posted.. Good fishing to all

[bolo]

Great report. Thank you.

[cybereagle]

Everything else was from the spots where the man told me.. Those I will keep to myself, sorry!!

Ah man come on why the hell join a fishing forum, just to get tips and secrets on jigs and then just say that you won't give up what some man told you in the bridge. ?What you think he won't tell anyone else?. Keep in mind that the bridge you were fishing at is a public place and anyone could fish on it. That includes the spots that you are keeping secret. I bet you are thinking that everyone in this forum is going to go at the same time to Long Key and fish 'THE SECRET SPOT'. That is fudk up.

[cybereagle]

Everything else was from the spots where the man told me.. Those I will keep to myself, sorry!!

Ah man come on why the hell join a fishing forum, just to get tips and secrets on jigs and then just say that you won't give up what some man told you in the bridge. ?What you think he won't tell anyone else?. Keep in mind that the bridge you were fishing at is a public place and anyone could fish on it. That includes the spots that you are keeping secret. I bet you are thinking that everyone in this forum is going to go at the same time to Long Key and fish 'THE SECRET SPOT'. That is fudk up.

[fishnfool73]

Yes give up the secrets that were found through hard work and countless nights on the bridge to people not willing to put in the time to find them themselves. You put in the time and sooner or later you will either find the spots yourself or find someone nice enough to share them with you. CYBEREAGLE when you find a spot or two down on the bridges in paradise post them here then try to elbow your way through the crowd next time you fish them.

Any spots I have in the Keys were found by a lot of leg work and trial and error by me or shared in secrecy by someone who did likewise. I will never post them for ever lazy googan on here to rape and pilage. Spend a few nights or a few hundred nights getting poured on or eaten by swamp angels or frying in the sun then see if you are so willing to give up the spots. The spots I fish are known to many on here and not ''secret'' but put in your time and you will find your own. Anyone who has ever fished theKeys knows that a secret spot is the difference between being skunked and having some fish in the cooler.

[Gotcha]

That's why it's a bad Idiea for a tourney there.

[cybereagle]

I have no secret spots, and if I did I would not have trouble sharing them.The only secret spot I have is the whole channel 2. Which I love to fish, and help anyone that is having a hard time fishing it. Hey I'm not the best, sometimes I go to the bridge and all I catch are grunts and I don't get mad but learn from my mistakes. I'm not ranking on the guy but keep In mind that he did not work for this spot it was just given to him by some stranger on the bridge. Hey I'm a stranger care to pass the info. fishnfool73 we are a fishing community, we are here to help each other.

[fishnfool73]

Yes I agree CYBEREAGLE and take a look on just about any question that needs answering on here and you will have a good chance of me trying to share what information I can with the members on here. What you will not see is the PM that I send to someone who needs some help or what I will share in person . This is a public site and a lot of lurkers only use it as a place to poach spots which is why most don't give directions on threads to spots esp. those in the Keys.
Rather than jump the poor guy for not sharing try a PM and you may get an answer to your question.
Spots in the Keys esp. whether shared or found are a treasure. The Keys bridges are easy to fish correctly if you figure out a few things about them. All those things require time and effort put those in and see if you are so eager to share spots down there. A good spot in the Keys in the difference between kepper muttons , black grouper, and permit and catching grunts.