It is late February and we are heading into the March Spring Break transition. Right now we are deep into some great fishing opportunities and Spring never disappoints with the opportunities of getting in on a great diversity of adventures. It is just a matter of figuring out what your group wants to do and having the right conditions to get it done! It’s difficult to predict what we will catch on your trip, but please check out my Facebook page and spend a few minutes looking at my previous customer catches to help give you an idea of what is going on or what I am trying to describe on the phone.
Starting with fishing, I sure can’t complain for what we have seen going through February. Most of my standard patterns for this time of year have been way off, but the fisheries that have replaced what isn’t working is more than making up for the change. On the deep reef, the yellowtail snapper have been upgraded to a late spring spawning size with the bigger fish over 20″ and pushing legal grouper size!

That’s incredible for this calendar date, so I see no reason for that to subside since we seem to be ahead of the calendar on weather and water temperatures. Moving deeper, the wrecks have been producing pretty reliable catches of quality fish. Kingfish, amberjacks, almaco jacks, mutton snapper, american red snapper, vermillion snapper and triggerfish have been providing my anglers with a good mix of big pulls and good eats. That cleaner deeper water has provided a good stable place for fish to hang out and the catching has been good when the water is clean and moving at just the right speed to make good drifts. My inshore reefs this time of the year is my bread and butter for most of my family type of trips. I expect it to be better than what it has been, but dirty inshore water has really kept me off of my inshore reef game. On some of the windy day trips I expect to have this Spring, I choose these close to shore reefs to keep us in comfortable conditions and keep rods bent on great multi-species action. It is very common to catch 10-12 different species on these trips and we usually get more than enough for dinner. As Spring pushes more fish through our area, I expect the quality of fish in the shallow reefs to improve. Far offshore the bite for Blackfin Tuna has been great. There is a body of larger fish that has been hanging out and we have seen some larger than average fish making it back to the docks. The offshore days have to be carefully chosen to keep us in comfortable fishing conditions, but if you can handle bigger seas, this has been a great option.
For in the water activities, my best answer is this….like a drought or flood, a heat wave or cold snap…this dirty water nonsense has to end at some point. I didn’t make it in the water this month and I didn’t see more than a few opportunities to do so in mediocre conditions. Dirty green water. I don’t know. The observation and answer is dirty green water. It is not uncommon to have dirty water periods at this time of year, but we have been stuck in a long term pattern of dirty water. It is best to give me a call in the evening to discuss what is going on out there for conditions and what may be the best options for your group for an in the water trip. Lobstering is still a no, just because I don’t want you to swim for 4 hours without much of a chance of catching a legal lobster.
For my Spring Breakers, there is plenty of fun to be had if you want an alternative to fishing or snorkeling. A trip to the sand bar is a great way to spend the day where you can have a few cocktails, collect some shells, do some light duty snorkeling, play in mermaid tails and chill out on some floaties and catch some rays. Remember, I offer custom trips, so if there is something you are interested in, just ask! I always do my best to make it happen. If I can’t do it, I’ll try to find somebody who can!

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