By: Capt. Bruce Andersen
When it comes to offshore fishing in the Florida Keys, late summer is one of my favorite times of the year when heading offshore. I’ve always felt that some of our best fishing was late in the summer, but this has been especially true the last few years and I’m looking forward to fishing in August more than ever this year. We’ve got awesome action on the reef with mangrove, mutton, and yellowtail snapper. It’s also a great time to get some deep dropping in for deep water species like snowy grouper and tilefish which are both open until the end of the month in the South Atlantic waters. Most of all though our late summer fishing offshore for mahi mahi and blackfin tuna the last several years has been fantastic. 
While early summer has traditionally been considered the peak time for great mahi fishing in the keys, late summer can offer some excellent fishing as well and it has gotten very consistent the last several years. Large schools of heavy lifter and gaffer size mahi with an occasional slammer can be a common occurrence. Weed patches, floating pieces of debris and birds are still all great signs of fish, but current edges with tightly formed weed lines are often my favorite thing to fish late in the mahi season. In addition to the mahi fishing, we usually start to see the beginning of some very good blackfin tuna fishing. This great tuna fishing normally starts in August and runs through the early fall months in places like the Islamorada hump and the other seamounts offshore of the Florida Keys.
Heading offshore this time of year is also a great way to beat the heat and the crowds. Although it can still be crowded offshore, especially on weekends it’s usually significantly less crowded than earlier in the summer and even on the hottest of summer days it’s always a little cooler offshore. On those hot slick calm days, you can even make your own breeze while trolling or sometimes just taking a ride to cool off. On my boat I’ll often pull in the lines and run a few miles at a time to cover ground to look for fish and cool everyone off at the same time. I call it turning on the fan. Be sure to head offshore sometime this month and get in on some awesome offshore action. Hopefully I’ll see you out there or better yet give me a call and I’ll take you out and show you myself!
— 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