By: Capt. Bruce Andersen
We’ve got great offshore fishing available all summer in the Florida Keys. The Mahi Mahi fishing is going strong and should continue for the next few months. The blackfin tuna fishing is good and should really heat up towards late summer. The reef fishing especially for mangrove snapper is usually on fire, but one of my favorite types of fishing we do is deep drop fishing for the various types of deep-water grouper, snapper, and tilefish found offshore of the Florida Keys.
The summer months are Ideal for this type of fishing as it’s very common to get long stretches of flat calm weather that make it easier when dropping in depths of 300 to 1000 feet of water. In addition to the weather, some of the most common species caught in the deep like snowy grouper and blue line tilefish are open to harvest from May 1st through the month of August.
Deep dropping can mean anything from targeting vermillion snapper, yellow eye snapper, and rose porgies in 300 to 450 feet of water to targeting snowy grouper, yellow edge grouper, queen snapper, and blue line tilefish in the 500 to 800 depths to trying for barrelfish, golden tilefish and even black belly rosefish all the way out to 1,000 feet. No matter what depth you try, all of these fish are fun to catch and they’re some of the best eating fish you’ll find anywhere.
There are several different fishing conditions that can factor into your success when deep dropping. It’s always easier to hold the bottom on calm days although not impossible on rough days as long as the current isn’t too strong. Offshore of the upper keys you’ll usually be fishing in the gulf stream current which can fluctuate daily. On days where the current is really ripping it will probably be best to target something else and switch over to dolphin or tuna fishing which are also very good this time of year and save deep dropping for a day with moderate current.
When deep drop fishing, we normally use multiple hook chicken rigs usually baited with squid and a variety of cut baits. One of the fun parts about catching fish in the deep is you never know what’s on the other end of the line until you get them up. You could have what seems to be a big fish on the line and it could turn out to be a double or triple header of smaller fish or it could be the big grouper you’ve been waiting for. There are few things like the sight of a big snowy or yellow edge grouper starting to come into view from the crystal-clear blue depths and then scoping up and breaking the surface next to the boat.
If you would like to try some deep drop fishing give me a call or try reaching out to one of the many offshore guides in the Keys. We’re very lucky to have some of the best captains in the world here in the Keys and some great fishing too!
— 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