By: Heather Born
Instagram@upperkeysrealestate
Summertime is still in full effect across the Florida Keys, and what comes along with it? Some great fishing. If you’ve ever fished the Florida Keys in the summer months there’s one thing you do know. The variety of fishing here is definitely not lacking.
Here you’ll find everything from flats and backcountry fishing to reef and offshore fishing. In the backcountry, mid March through mid July is peak season for Tarpon, and the snook bite definitely won’t leave you disappointed either.
Often the summer time brings calmer seas along with it which makes for a great day of Mahi fishing offshore. Stay closer in on the reef and you’ll have a great chance of catching a mangrove or mutton snapper.
To me nothing beats a day of Mahi fishing. The sound of screaming drag and the show you get when you are hooked up is nothing short of a good adrenaline rush. But if time allows, and you are fortunate enough to come across some structured bottom as you are headed inshore, you might just hook up on a mutton snapper leading you to the best of both worlds.
Mutton snapper can be caught all year long here in the Florida Keys, but starting in May they begin to spawn bringing on a hot bite throughout the summer months. Mutton Snapper are excellent to eat. The meat is white and flaky and offers a sweet to mild taste. Sure the taste is hard to beat, but the catch is even more exciting.
I normally prefer catching mutton snapper by drift fishing when the currents are slow. This allows me to cover a larger area of ground than when I am anchored. I use braid for my main line attached to 40 pounds of fluorocarbon leader, a 2 oz egg sinker, and a 4/0 circle hook. I personally prefer using live pinfish as bait, as I’ve had the best experience with those, although my last trip I found another type of setup just as effective.
We were heading in from a day of Mahi fishing off Tavernier Key. The Mahi came easy that day. We found a thick weed line and frigate birds at 280 feet. The dolphin were on the smaller side, but plenty around. Heading in the gps showed what looked like structured bottom in 125 feet of water. We were set up for Mahi fishing that day, but happened to have 3 pounds of lead on board. With no live bait we decided to cut the belly out one of the Mahi’s we caught, attach it to a 13/0 circle hook using 100 pounds of fluorocarbon leader. Definitely not the usually setup, but within 5 minutes of drifting along the rocky bottom with the current ripping we caught a decent size mutton snapper.
Between the mahi and the mutton it definitely made for a fabulous fish fry that night.