Dennis Suler holds a nice Florida Keys cobia
Looking for a quiet, relaxing key that offers some great fishing for most every species? You may want to head to the Florida Keys. With all the species that you can catch, the action is truly nonstop and can last day and night.
Be careful when you’re driving in here and keep your eyes on the road. Al warned me when I was driving down US-1 to reach the key. “There are lots of accidents down here as newcomers are often distracted.â€
I’m a seasoned angler, but an even more seasoned driver. I drive up and down the coast more than most, visiting new fishing spots, family, friends and conducting business. I was still curious about why I would receive such a warning. What’s the deal, Al? I queried.
You just don’t get it until you get down here. You;ll be driving down the Intercoastal Highway and a manatee will jump clear out of the water, right next to you. It’s just amazing. It causes lots of accidents
Heeding Al’s advice, I drove into the keys at night and met Al for the following day’s fishing. In fact, driving out of the keys, I did the same thing and left after the sun had set. I’m now curious to see what it’s like when driving down the highway, but I’ll find out this year.
Out With Captain Al
Al had told me that we were going to fish the reef and possibly do some tarpon fishing. Al said that the tarpon action was great at night; it was so great that he had some battle wounds on the bridge of his nose from a fish that got the best of him, but more on that in a little bit.
I landed this 7-foot nurse shark while fishing with Captain Al. Stop being cold and get down to the keys where you can land lots of big fish now!
Waking up in the morning, we headed down to the canal where his boat was docked. In the canal, you could see schools of corn cob mullet patrolling the area, lined up one after another. Once we got on the boat and began running out the canal, lizards were sunning themselves along the waterway, birds lined the edges of the water as they looked for their next meal, and other wildlife was active all around. The water was alive with every form of life.
We ran out of the inlet and onto the local reef, where Al had been successful in previous days. Al set up in a slight chop, and began chumming, dropping a chum pot down to the bottom, and floating a chum lot on the surface.
We were fishing a number of rods at various depths. There was one rod on the bottom, one at mid-depth, and another livelined far behind the boat. Our two top rods were light tackle, while the line on the bottom was heavier. Pinfish were livelined and dropped to the bottom, while live shrimp were fished at middle depths.
Fish On!
I’ve always heard about fishing wrecks and reefs in more tropical climates. The action is supposedly fast and furious, with multiple fish hitting at a time. Many rarely ever see this, and it makes you wonder if the action can be this fast and furious. Many have experienced schools of bluefish or stripers where multiple anglers will be tied up into one species, but do people actually catch multiple species simultaneously? Can the action be that nonstop, fast and furious? I found out that it can.
Within minutes, the shrimp were hit. After fighting stripers that were hitting bucktails and plastic baits, it took me a couple of misses to get acclimated to the fish hitting (Al told me that I was just a crummy fisherman, but I would show him). After a couple of losses, I dialed in, and the action was nonstop.
Many love saltwater fishing because you never know what you’re going to catch. This type of fishing truly exemplifies this. Al told me that we’d catch yellowtail, grouper in the gag and goliath form, snapper and more…the list goes on. The action was so fast that you couldn’t fish three rods effectively.
Bottom’s Up
What came from the bottom-fished rod was the most interesting. We landed a number of grouper, some of which were downright scary in size. After catching a number of them on live pinfish, a fish hit, not hard, but it was big.
I pulled on the rod that was spooled with 30-pound test. The fish gave a little, then fought back, running down. We tugged back and forth, and I was able to eventually bring the beast to the surface. I ended up catching a 7-foot nurse shark that weighed 150 to 200 pounds. The beast had smooth skin and, of course, was released without harm. You never know what you’re going to catch in the saltwater.
Get On Top
I landed this 7-foot nurse shark while fishing with Captain Al.
As we were fighting and landing fish at the bottom and middle depths, the livelined pinfish had a big fish on it. The light rod was screaming as a fish peeled line off the reel and a battle ensued. After 20 minutes of a steady back-and-forth fight, we were able to bring the fish close enough to the boat to identify it.
“Cobia,†Al declared. Al fishes for cobia regularly off of South Jersey and does well with them. He had told me that he always has a rod rigged for cobia in the mid- to late-summer in Jersey, and it’s his favorite fish.
“Get the gaff ready,†I said as I brought the fish boatside.
“Naah, not yet,†he countered. “That fish is too green still.â€
“Bu-,†before I could respond, the cobia must have seen the boat and took off. The beast ran for the hills, taking line off the reel and running out of sight in an instant.
Another 20 minutes, later, I brought an exhausted 15-pound cobia to the boat. This time, we were able to get the gaff into him and get him in the boat. What a fight.
Al said that there are also king mackerel, in addition to barracuda and sharks, that inhabit the water
through the winter. Looking for bonefish? Even the bones inhabit The Florida Keys through the winter.
After Hours
The tarpon fishing is also out-of-this-world around Summerland Key, with the night bite being the best. Al regularly takes anglers out so they can tie into some of these acrobatic monsters that often exceed 50 pounds.
Bloodied Al
When I saw Al, his face was bloodied and battered. Then he told me the story.
“A couple of nights ago, I caught a tarpon while fishing by myself. As the fish lay boatside, it was still, so I thought, ‘what a great picture.’
“As I grabbed my disposable camera, I was ready to take the picture when the boat must have moved a bit. The fish went ballistic and jumped straight out of the air, hitting me between the eyes and knocking my camera out of my hands.
“It took me a minute to understand what had happened, but when I came to, the fish was gone, my nose was bleeding, and my disposable camera was floating out to the Gulf of Mexico.â€
Sorry to hear that Al. Be more careful when you play with those big tarpon.
