Friday, December 16, 2011

Fishin in the Keys

Fishing in the Keys is great - as usual.  This year has been a little on the warm side for early winter.  If you are coming from a cold part of the world - I'm sure you won't mind a bit!  Even though the waters have been warmer than normal for this time of year - the fish are still in their winter patterns. 
 
The spanish mackerel are "game on" just outside the park.  We caught a few nice tripletail and a small cobia along with 25-30 feisty spanish mac's on one of the less windy days last week.  The redfish have been good and some really nice size snook have moved in.  The reds are averaging 2-5 pounds and last week we boated some great size snook in the 8-12 pound range.  It's nice to see the snook population is getting better and better over the last couple years.  They are still "no take" and that is helping the fishery tremendously.  The trout bite is very good - but they are also "out of season" through December.  Nice size fish up to 22 inches and very good numbers.  Fun for "catch and release".  It you want some "eaters" the mangrove snapper are schooled up in big numbers and make for great table fair.  We landed a 25 inch gag grouper in one of my snapper holes on Friday (yum).  We are also getting some nice black drum and sheepshead.  For you shark fans - the warmer weather has kept some of these "toothy critters" lurking in our shallow waters.  We landed two nice lemon sharks in the 80-100 pound range earlier last week. 
 
I've got several trips over the next couple weeks and the fishing should be great. 
 
Happy Holidays everyone!  Hope to see you on the water soon.
 
Thanks,
Captain Steve Murray
Phone:  305 - 393 - 1641
Email:  stevemurray126@att.net
Website:  www.tarponheadquarters.com