By: Capt. Bruce Andersen
As spring comes around one of my favorite things to do offshore of the Florida Keys is fish the deep wrecks and rock piles from 150 out to 300 feet of water. You can catch a variety of fish on these wrecks this time of year, but my main target species are either mutton snapper or amberjack depending on the spot I’m on and what my charter customers are after.
If you’re looking for a big fish to really stretch your arms out there aren’t many fish that pull harder than an amberjack. Whether you’re targeting them with live bait or vertical jigs they are a whole lot of fun and a challenge to bring up from the depths. When he’s first hooked, an amberjack can pull so hard that often beginners will only last a few minutes on the rod before passing the rod off to someone else. I’ve also got groups of customers that will catch and release these fish all day. One group in particular, that fishes with me several times a year likes to target these fish strictly with vertical jigs. These guys are a special group that love jigging and we’ve caught and released as many as 36 amberjacks in a single day with them! While that group can definitely be considered an ambitious bunch, most people are content with catching a jack or two and then moving on to any of the many other types of fishing we have available.
When targeting Amberjacks with jigs we’ll use high speed reels filled with 50 to 80-pound braided line on a jigging rod rated for 80-pound line with a 10-foot section of 50 to 80 fluorocarbon leader and a 5 to 8-ounce vertical jig. With the live bait we usually use heavier stand up tackle in the 50-pound range filled with 50 to 80-pound braid with a 3-way swivel tied to 20 feet of 60 to 80-pound fluorocarbon and a 6/0 to 9/0 circle hook. It’s hard to beat a live goggle eye, but blue runners, speedos, grunts, and pinfish can all be great baits too.
Mutton snapper are another species that can be caught on these wrecks. Although muttons are not as big as the amberjacks they’re still a very hard fighting fish. They’re beautiful fish and excellent table fare. They can be harder to catch than other bottom fish at times as they can be wary of hooks and leaders and a bit harder to trick. Because of this we normally scale down the tackle a little for the muttons. I like 30-pound conventional tackle spooled with 30- or 40-pound braid. I’ll run the braid through the lightest egg sinker I can get away with and tie it to a barrel swivel and finish the rig with a long 30-pound fluorocarbon leader and a light wire 3/0 to 5/0 circle hook depending on the bait. Live bait like live ballyhoo, cigar minnows, pilchards, or pinfish are all great choices, but dead bait can be just as effective. Some of my favorite dead baits are deboned ballyhoo, google eyes, or chunks of speedo.
Fishing the wrecks offshore of the Florida Keys is a great way to get in on some action in the spring. If you would like to give it a try give me a call, we’ll see what we can get into.
— 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