By: Capt. Joel Brandenburg
Did you know that according to Google, spring starts March 20th and ends June 20th. Spring has sprung, and the Florida Keys is the place to be in Spring.
I’d say Spring is the best time to catch quantity, quality, and variety of fish in the Florida Keys. Since we charter offshore, near shore and inshore, and have several boats to match the occasion, and we have clients who want to spend the whole day fishing offshore, big game, deep sea for mahi, tuna, wahoo, bill fish, etc.
We also have clients who want to spend the whole day nearshore fishing reefs, wrecks, and ledges for a variety of snapper, grouper, amberjack, sailfish, african pompano, permit, cobia, etc. and then there are other clients that want to fish flats, backcountry and bridges for a variety of snapper, grouper, permit, snook, redfish, trout, cobia, jacks and tarpon. Some clients choose to go offshore deep, dropping with electric reels after swordfish, black bellied rosie’s, tile fish, queen, snapper, snowy grouper, wreck fish, etc. Springtime is the time to do it all!
It’s hard to target all in one day and it’s best to pick one each day and book multiple days if you want to experience all the variety of species that the Florida Keys has to offer. Spring time is all about the food chain. In the spring, the bait fish migrate in schools up in certain areas. The small fish come in to eat the baitfish, medium fish come in to eat a small fish, big fish come in to eat a medium fish and so on, the food chain is in full swing in spring.
One of our main goals as full-time anglers and Fishing Captains, is to keep up with the right bait. Matching the hatch as they say and presenting the correct bait to the game fish at any given time. In other words, use the bait that they are presently eating.
Some good examples are use mullet or crab for tarpon. Sometimes in spring, the mullet run is happening and that’s what tarpon are feeding on and sometimes in spring the crab run is happening and the tarpon won’t hardly eat a mullet and vice versa.
Another example is when schools of squid pour into the 1700-foot column and swordfish are feeding on squid, it’s not the best time to use a mahi or hound fish bait, it’s best to use squid. When the snapper spawn happens, and the big snapper are eating on pinfish that just migrated inside the reef, use live pinfish, don’t use shrimp, squid or ballyhoo. Or when the flying fish start appearing in large schools offshore, that’s the best time to troll ballyhoo which emulate flying fish.
In the charter world most captains agree that March, April and May is probably the best three months of the year for quantity, quality and variety of game fish in the Florida Keys.
If you’re after a world class trophy tarpon, April or May is the time. It’s the best time to catch a trophy bull mahi, wahoo, or billfish. Springtime is the best time to fill your cooler with good table fare.
We are prepared to take you on whatever adventure you choose, but at the end of the day, mother nature dictates where we could and should take you each day. A client who books for a Tuesday and Thursday in April for example, might have their heart set on going offshore on Tuesday and inshore on Thursday.
Mother nature may dictate that it needs to be switched because Tuesday is blowing 25 mph out of the north and Thursday is calm seas! No Trip is worth getting beat up and wet for 8 to 10 hours, so when booking multiple days keep in mind, mother nature will dictate what we should do on any given day. We hope to see you down in the beautiful Florida Keys this spring! Safe travels. For a charter with Captain Joel or Jojo Brandenburg with Ana Banana Fishing company call 305-395-4212 office or 813-267-4401 cell or visit marathonkeyfishingcharters.com
— For a charter with Ana Banana Fishing Company call Captain Joel Brandenburg at office 305-395-4212 cell 813-267-4401 or visit us in person
at Ana Banana Marina 11699 Overseas Hwy Marathon or at our other location at Poncho’s Fuel Dock 1280 Oceanview Av Marathon