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Florida Keys Fishing Report

Fishing off the waters of the Florida Keys

Offshore:
With the almost summer-like weather early in the week several charter boats ran offshore and had a good day on the Dolphin.  Nice racks of school fish accompanied by a hand full of big fish in the 20 pound plus size were displayed behind boats in upper Keys Marinas.  BUT?.late in the week along came a front and with west and north wind and cold temperatures  the offshore fun was a memory.

Reefs:
Yellowtail Snapper catches were good this week.  Capt. Dirrk Reich on the Miller Time boat drifted live Pilchards out in the chum and caught a limit of large Yellowtails for his party.  Some nice Black Grouper are also showing up in the fish box as of late.  Capt. Paul on the Skipper had a great reef catch this week, including one Wahoo (30#) One Dolphin (28#) and a “bunch” of King Mackerel.

**Gulf and Bay:
**Gulf water was a shade of chalky green last week, but that did not hurt the fishing.  Capt. Mike Owens had a day in the Gulf catching Permit, Cobia, Tarpon and Tripletail.  Capt. Mike was way out in the Gulf in 15 feet of water and said the Tarpon were everywhere skyrocketing and boiling and rolling creating quite a scene.  On another day Ray Bukowski fished the Gulf and landed a huge Tripletail weighing 12 pounds.   The following day Ray caught and released a Tarpon estimated at 130 pounds at Channel Two west of Islamorada.  The tarpon action is starting to get good with the fair weather.

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Flats, Backcountry and Flamingo:
The proudest angler last week was 18 yr. Old Hal Reigel, who landed a Snook near Flamingo.  The Snook measured 35 inches and was released.  The Snook length limit is a slot from 26 inches to 34 inches meaning all Snook over 34″ must be released.  Trout catches remained good and more Snook are being caught also.  Backcountry fishing came to a halt on Friday when a severe front blew strong winds and cool temperatures across Florida Bay.

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