One of the most popular inshore gamefish in my region is the bonefish, and we’ve got some of the largest bonefish you will find in North America here in the Southeast Region of Florida. The flats of Biscayne Bay from Key Biscayne all the way south to Angelfish Creek hold bonefish of all sides on both the inside and outside flats.
Season 12/Show 23/Piers & Jetty
Wahoo are a mainstay gamefish in the Florida Keys and one we target all year round. In the summer months, there’s basically two ways to specifically target wahoo; you can find blue water and troll ballyhoo and mullet or slow troll with live baits, or you can run and gun looking for the larger floating items out in the ocean. If trolling is your game, you’re going to be a lot more effective if you get your baits down below the surface. Wahoo like to sit deep in the water column, which is why wire lines and downriggers are so effective at targeting them.
From Boca Grande all the way down to Naples, we get a lot of permit on the wrecks from 5 to 20 miles offshore. The permit go to these structures in schools of anywhere from 50 to 500 fish or more, and constantly circle the wreck all day.
Late July is a great time to do some diving in my region, whether you snorkel, scuba dive or use a Hookah rig. The entire month of July the ocean is flat, unless we get a big tropical storm moving through the area, so you can pretty much dive anywhere you want out of a small boat. We’re fortunate in that we have crystal clear water most of the time in both the bays and in the ocean.
The best snapper fishing in my region takes place around the new and full moons, when the fish gather up to spawn. We’re talking yellowtail and mutton snapper, and then as we get into the summer months, the larger mangrove snapper will move in to spawn. For three or four days on either side of the new and full moons, the snapper will stack up in big schools on the reefs, and that’s when you can really have a productive day or night on the water.
Bait is king in my region, mostly because with bait you’re not trying to trick or fool fish into believing what they are going to eat is real, it is real. And because it’s real, it acts and reacts like the real thing is supposed to, and also smells and tastes real, so when a fish eats it, it will hold onto the bait longer than it will a fly or lure.
As we move into mid-April, the seatrout are coming out of the deeper canals and channels and moving towards the shallow water grass flats to spawn. From now through early June, you’ll not only find good numbers of seatrout in the bays, but also the largest fish of the year.
