March 2005 Fishing Report

Hello from Key West, This is captain Paul Tryon with Key West PRO Guides and Tailchaser Charters, here with your March fishing report:

Winter still has her grasp on us as the waters continue to stay cool. The cold fronts still come every three of four days and the winds, although not near as bad as last year, continue to blow. Things are getting better and with the approach of April things will shape up to be outstanding, considering the milder than normal winter we have been having. Here’s how things are shaping up…..

Offshore:
The Gulfstream has averaged between 9 and about 30 miles to the south. This has kept some of the warmer waters from reaching us and the slow down in the fishing has shown. The water temps are still cool and this has slowed the action down a little. Just south of the reef anywhere from 30 feet to about 240 feet, we have been doing pretty well on the Sailfish. When you find the color changes, take a troll or a drift by and you should have pretty good luck.

Deep off the Reef:
The deeper wrecks off of the reef have still been good with Amberjacks, Black fin tuna, Barracuda, Bonita and smaller sharks. The kingfish have been showing up pretty good and the groupers are hitting really well. Most of the larger groupers; anywhere from 20-45lbs. are hitting nay large live bait dropped their way. The best baits are the Pinfish when fishing this deep and any big tipped jig should get looked at.

Reef/Wrecks:
The Gulf action has slowed quite a lot with the cooler water temps. The Cobia and the Kings are still hitting well, but we have our yearly invasion of the Bluefish setting up camp on most of the rock piles and wrecks in the Gulf. These guys have been showing up the last few years with the cooler water temps making it down here and are a real challenge when trying to fish for the snappers and groupers. The sharks are very active on the shallower wrecks, these guys are a great fight on the lighter tackle with most sharks averaging around 40-50 lbs.

Flats/BackCountry:
Slow, that’s about the jist of it, the flats are still slow with the cooler water temps. The Permit are showing on the edged still hoping to get on the flats to feed and as always the Sharks and Barracuda try to find the warmth from the sun by keeping in the shallow water. Most of the fish seem to be quite lethargic when the temps dip below 70deg. or so and spring to life at the first sign of a warm up. Pray for the sun these days!

This is Captain Paul Tryon, Give me a call to book your day with some of Key Wests best guides here at Key West PRO Guides and have some fun fishing! Until next month, keep those reels screaming! For booking information with Key West PRO Guides or TailChaser Charters, you can call me at 305-296-6602 or visit my website:

www.keywestproguides.com or www.tailchasercharters.net

Tight lines,

Capt. Paul Tryon