Miami/Dry Tortugas

General Travel
1

spent three days in south Florida fishing.
Day 1: Day dropping for swords with Jon Cooper/Diversion Charters. 1 for 2. Landed a 185#+ fish on standup tackle. Other one pulled off after a half hour. Rough as hell.
Day 2 & 3. Went with Rob Hammer/Invincible for a 2 day trip around the dry tortugas. Fishing there is unbelievable. Caught grouper until we were sick of it. Reds, black, & scamp. released a jewfish. caught some reds, muttons, yellowtail snappers, released some short reds. Caught bonito, cobia, and cudas on spinning rods. Caught ceros and spanish. Caught Jack Crevalle, yellow & horseeye jacks. Blackfin weren’t around, kings didn’t cooperate.

Left early on Saturday since we were tired of reeling.

2

Swamp,

Whens the best time to fish the Tortugas??? Is February decent??? Looking for a winter getaway.

3

my understanding is that the kings start moving in around thanksgiving…big ones first. They told me March was best for blackfin. It was also still a little early for cobia. Bottom fishing is supposed to be pretty consistant. Weather is the key for travel- we’ve canceled 3 trips before due to weather. It’s 70 NM from Key West, the last 30 or so of open water. It was fairly snotty with a 15 knt NNE wind.

My experience (limited) with Miami in Feb. is good sailfishing, lots of cobia around, & decent for ground fish. The weather is either great or so-so.

Hope that helps.