Fishing the Keys

Fishing the Keys offers more diversity of species and variety of opportunity than you’ll likely find saltwater fishing anywhere else in the world.

Here in the Florida Keys you could catch anything from sailfish to kingfish to yellowtail snapper to trout. You can fish in water from a foot deep to several thousand feet deep. Many species of locally caught fish are considered excellent table fare and are served at our Keys eateries.

Offshore fishing means you’re going out past the main reefline—which generally runs parallel to the islands and sits between 3 and 6 miles from land—into the deeper waters of the Atlantic. Just off the reef depths drop quickly to 100 feet and as you head out further the bottom drops as far as 4000 feet below.

In the blue waters of the Florida Straits you’ll find pelagic game fish like blue marlin, sharks, dolphin, blackfin tuna, an occasional yellowfin tuna, wahoo, and tripletail. These fish move through the area following bait and changing currents and seasons.

Reef fishing in the Florida Keys usually means working the oceanside waters over near and around the main reefline. In the cooler months of the year this is sailfish country. You’ll also find kingfish, cero mackerel, mutton snapper, yellowtail snapper, red grouper, black grouper, and a number of other species here in water from 50 to 200 feet deep.

Another arena of Keys fishing with its own descriptive name is patch fishing. This means working the myriad of rock piles, coral patch reefs, small wrecks, and ledges that lie between the island shorelines and the main reefline. Water depths here run from just a few feet up to 40 feet out near the drop off.

Fishing the Keys inshore patches can be done on even the windiest of days. Expect to have tons of fun catching smaller snappers and groupers, a variety of grunts and porgies, a few cero mackerels, and the occasional barracuda. Patch fishing is at its best from November until March.

Unique fishing terms abound in the Keys, so here is another, flats fishing. Concentrating your angling efforts on the shallow areas that lie near the islands both oceanside and bayside would make you a flats fisherman. Anglers fishing oceanside flats will be looking for the wily and ever evasive Florida Keys bonefish, as well as permit, and tarpon. Catching all three in a single day is called a flats grand slam.

If you work your fishing the Keys magic on the bayside of the island chain you’re backcountry fishing. You can also flats fish in the backcountry for species like snook, redfish, tarpon, and sharks. In many areas of the Middle and Upper Keys once you’ve crossed the ICW (Intercoastal Waterway) you’ll be fishing Everglades National Park waters.

Fishing from shore can be a bit limited in the Keys. There are very few beaches and only a small number of areas with public access that are suitable for wade fishing. There is bridge fishing on many sections of the old bridge. Most of these are located in the Middle and Lower Keys.

Getting to any of the most prized fishing areas in the Keys will require a boat. If you don’t have your own you can opt for a Keys fishing charter or if you’re the adventurous do-it-yourselfer go for a Keys boat rental.