Just Spent a Week in the Florida Keys

[RJF]

Nice place. I could live there. 85 degrees and sunshine the year around. Caught some fish on a half dau charter. Kingfish and Bonito. Limited on the Kings (two per angler). Captain kept the Bonito, to make chum and bait for the soon to be here Dolphin season. I'll try posting a couple pictures.

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/500/2962Group_1-med.jpg

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/500/2962My_King_2-med.jpg

[captdenny]

Great weather and Great fishing, just wish I was there. Fish-on

[steve ypsi]

I don't want to Rain on your Parade but I lived there for a year.
Nice Kings, also called smokers, they are called that because they can smoke a drag. nothing for them to run 100 yards of line out, that's with using a reel we would use here for Salmon.
85 year round, no more like 95 for six months or more that feels like 120 here, I moved there,Fl, north of Tampa, arrived in northern Fl and a friend that was driving with me said ""why in the he** would you want to move some where that is 89 degrees at 12:00 midnight after he looked at the thermometer in the truck mirror as we arrived in Fl on a Sept night, well after one year he was right and I sold and moved back. It almost killed me with the heat. I like to be out side and I told my friend that when it was hot I could still go fishing thinking like it was here in Mi. No I couldn't go fishing after may 20 th until late Sept, The ocean Temp gets to 88 degree's 60 miles out in the gulf, well the inshore was about 92 to 94 degrees, when you stepped off the boat into the water it was like hot water. I never drank as much liquid in my life. tried fishing in the middle of June one time, Drank a gallon jug that was ice to begin with in 1 1/2 hours after we stopped, My friend started puking from the heat, we left and came back in.
Fishing there/ what we caught on hook and line for bait about 6 to 12 inches long fought harder than most Bass here, Bring up a 10 pound grouper was some thing that was unbelievable in the power they had on rods as stiff as a broom stick and 60 pound test for a 10 to 20 pound fish, caught a shark as big as I was. Had fish 20 inch long bitten off at the head leavening me just the head for my trouble, I wouldn't put my hand in the water after that and it wasn't sharks either, barracuda.
We have Spring summer and fall then Ice fishing, Fl has late April until June then Sept to Dec fishing, in the Keys it is different times because of the fish mirgrations like kings and Macks. You can go out but unless you have a boat where I was at least 25 ft or more with 160 gal gas tanks to go 40 to 60 miles out or you didn't do a lot of fishing.
I see you went out on a Charter, that's the best way you could go, My boy lived there in Fl for 18 years, he knew how to fish and where to fish, how to anchor because of the tides. I never saw so much barren water, If it hadn't been for my boy it would have taken me years to get the right gear and all the GPS points to catch a few fish. Its another ball game in the ocean, I didn't believe him at first and tried trolling up to 10 miles going to the GPS points, not one bite, I did this about 5 times before I believed him. I saw Manta Rays that looked 10 Feet across jump what looked to be 20 feet straight up, saw so many porpoise's I couldn't count them all and never tired of watching them playing and really liked watching them surround huge bait pods and slash them to pieces. I saw manatee's that looked like they weighed 3000 pounds just in front of the boat. I saw the Bonita Aka tiny Tuna tearing bait schools up with them flying out of the water for hundreds of yard's of bait fish.
They can still have it, I didn't like watching T V for six months out of the year.
By the way I had been to Fl before I moved there 3 times before I moved. in Jan, left here at 0 Degree's, in Fl at night it was 75 the next day and I thought what a place to live, yea for Jan Feb then come home.
Steve MI formerly of Fl for One year.

[quest32a]

looks like you had a blast and caught some fish. ocean fishing is great you never know what you are going to catch. the most fun i ever had is when we found a school of barracuda. we were using some kind of bait fish that was around 8 inches long. when we put them in the water and they sensed the danger of having the cuddas around theY (the bait) would do the 100 yard dash straight for the boat. They wanted back in, it was hilarious!!

[trout]

Nice fish and pics
I lived in FLA for a year once 80 by 10 am
50 at Christmas,
Missed MI so I came back.
BUT it sure is a great place to visit!

[jpollman]

I agree ........

Nice place to VISIT. Wouldn't want to LIVE THERE.

I like a change of pace when it comes to the weather.

[JasonG]

I went to school in Pensacola for four years. It is hot all the time and the humidity is unbareable. Three showers a day just to stay fresh. I love MI weather, Great summers up here and snow and ice fishing in the winter.

Just so happens I am flying to my alma mater tomorrow for the week. I will have to say it will be nice to get out of the cold, plus the college is paying for the whole trip. Free trip to Florida, I'll take it. I am lookiing to go party boat fishing sometime in the week

[PrtyMolusk]

Howdy-

Great fish!

Like the old saying, "It ain't the heat, it's the humidity!" That's what I didn't like about FL.

Give me the arid stretches of So Cal any time!

[Lunker]

Theres a beauty ! And the fish are nice too! :D :D
I lived in Pensecola also for almost a year. I got so burnt in 20 minutes on the beach that my legs wouldnt move and sweeked up till it looked like I had vericose veins! I caught redfish about 3 feet long whene they came in. Took a 20 hr charter till I was green ( 10 foot waves once we got there ...never again). I saw everything there was too see and more than missed home alot so I came home. The best was watching a girlfreind hook something huge off of a bridge. It almost pulled her in, I grabbed the rod and it just spooled me. We saw a 10 foot manatee surface about 50 feet away, gave us the big fin and swam off. The worst were the fireants, freaking roaches at night on the peirs, portugese manowar jellyfish, stingrays, and rattlesnakes. Othere than that it was fun.

[RJF]

I've caught Salmon in our lakes up here, but they don't pull like these guys did. 100 YDS in a hurray. We were using twenty pound spinning rigs with live Cigar Minnows. We had four on at once a couple times. Talk about a fire drill!! Was a great time. Can't afford to do the charter boat often, but we expect several years before our next trip down.

As for the weather, I think I could take the Keys year around. Always cooler than the mainland. Weather.com says the average temp is in the mid-eighties for every month of the year. We watched a Miami TV channel, and they were talking about record heat in the high 90s. We were very comfortable at 84 with a 10-15 MPH breeze.

Great restaurants. We loved Papa Joes. Great place to watch the sunset.

Look forward to finishing the ice fishing season and then getting our boat into the water.