By: Capt. Bruce Andersen
Springtime in the Florida Keys offers so many fishing options that sometimes it’s hard to decide what type of fishing to do. With so many different options this time of the year, I’ll base my decisions on two things – what my customers are most interested in catching and what the conditions point to that day. Unless you’ve got a particular species in mind it’s best to let the conditions dictate what type of fishing you may want to start with. We usually pick what to start fishing for based on wind direction, windspeed, tide, current, watercolor, moon phase, and of course what’s been biting on the days leading up to the trip. If we’ve got a moderate 15 knot breeze, blue water, and a good amount of current outside the reef there’s a very good chance we’ll do some live bait kite fishing for pelagics like sailfish, kingfish, and blackfin tuna.
On a slick, calm day there’s a really good chance we might hit the hump or some wrecks for amberjack or even target some deep-water snappers. When we’ve got a nice current flowing in the same direction as the wind and dirty water on the reef it’s time to go yellowtail snapper fishing. If it’s blowing 20 knots out of the east and it’s going to be rough offshore I might head back to the gulf to get in on the spanish mackerel bite and hope to score with some cobia. The great thing about fishing in March is that all of these are available as well as a bunch of other options. If the first thing we set out to do doesn’t work or if the condition changes there’s always something else to target and almost everything is biting this time of year.
When I think about fishing in the month of March, one of the first things that comes to mind is what I did last year around this time. As much as last spring was a very frustrating time with Covid setting in, the silver lining was all of the free time I had I got to take my son Ian and my dad “Pops” out fishing. It was probably the most I’ve fished with my dad since I was a kid. Now It’s a good thing we’ve got a wide variety of stuff to fish for this time of year because as much as I love fishing with Pops he can be very impatient. He’s one of my favorite people in the world to fish with, but If he goes 10 minutes without a bite everyone around him is hearing about it! Luckily, we’re able to mix it up and switching types of fishing was an easy order. No matter what type of fishing you choose to do I hope I see you out there sometime this spring!
— You can reach Captain Bruce Andersen at Capt. Easy Charters, MM 85, call 305.360.2120 or email at: captbrucekey@comcast.net