By: Capt. Bruce Andersen
The weather has finally starting to change. The hot sweltering heat of summer is fading away and soon we will have cold fronts sweeping down the Florida peninsula and finally cooling things off here in the Florida Keys. As the weather starts to cool, one thing that will heat up is the bottom fishing on the various shipwrecks offshore in the Keys.
There are lots of ways to catch snapper and grouper here in the Keys. But one of my favorites, especially this time of year, is by fishing the various shipwrecks in depths of 100 to 250 feet of water offshore of the Keys. Drifting the wrecks and areas of hard bottom with long leader’s and live baits has always been one of my specialties on my fishing charters, and personally one of my favorite things to do even when I go fun fishing with the family.
There are a wide variety of species that you might catch with this kind of fishing, but the main target and my favorite is the mutton snapper. Muttons are one of the more challenging snapper to catch. They’re wary, a little bit more line shy and harder to trick than other snapper like red snapper. They fight a little bit harder for their size than many other snapper, and luckily down here in the Keys we have a very healthy fishery for them. They’re open to harvest year-round and offer an exciting, challenging, beautiful catch and are also great eating.
The best way to target muttons would be to charter an experienced, professional captain like myself to take you out and show you the techniques firsthand. There are a lot of variations to these techniques, but most of them involve either anchoring on a wreck or drifting around a wreck depending on the conditions: current, wind speed, and wind direction. Most experienced mutton fisherman will like to fish with fairly long leaders. Sometimes as long as 40 feet, although there are many variations to these techniques with shorter leaders. We’ll usually fish relatively light, fluorocarbon leaders usually in the 30-to-50-pound test range. And most anglers like to use light wire circle hooks in the 3/0 to 6/0 size range, depending on the type of baits they’re deploying. For baits, my favorites include live ballyhoo, cigar minnows, or pilchards. Dead bait will also work with goggle eyes, ballyhoo, and speedo chunks, all being some of the favorites.
There are so many different types of fishing available this time of year and they’re all fun, but if you’re looking to get out there and try some wreck fishing, give me a call and I’ll be happy to take you. It’s a great time of year to get out on the water and try some bottom fishing!
— www.captaineasycharters.com
You can reach Captain Bruce Andersen at Capt. Easy Charters,
MM 85, call 305.360.2120 or email at: captbrucekey@comcast.net