Monthly Archives: July 2005

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

Summer has finally arrived! Great weather, nice light to moderate winds and plenty of sunshine! Most of the winds in the summer are east to southeast and help keep the waters warm and stable.

Here’s how things are shaping up…..

Offshore:
The Gulfstream has averaged between 22 and 38 miles to the south. The easts to southeast winds have helped the weed lines to form nicely. Some of the patches are the size of football fields and most miles long. These weed patches provide cover for lots of baitfish and in turn lure bigger game fish such as the dolphin and sailfish to them in the hopes for a bite to eat. The weed lines that we are finding are finding are holding some schoolies and on the deeper trolled lines we are picking up a few nice 20-30lb Dolphin. In the blue water, look foe the high flyers, North American Frigate birds, these guys are the ones to watch when looking for that big dolphin or sailfish.

Deep off the Reef:
The deeper wrecks off of the reef have still been good with Amberjacks, African Pompano, Barracuda, Bonita and smaller sharks. With the currents being light and the wind in the right direction, we have been anchoring up on the deeper wrecks lately and simply having our way with the fish! We are coming off of the Mutton snapper spawns now and are still finding plenty of nice 15-20lb. fish in the deep water. Dropping whole ballyhoos to the bottom has produced nice Black and Gag Groupers along with my favorite the Mutton Snappers. Dropping a fresh live Ballyhoo to the bottom is sure to get nailed! Now that we have the water temperatures stabilizing, the blackfin tuna should start to come around and spread out over more of the deeper wrecks. The last few deep water wreck trips have each found a few hungry black fins and what a blast they are on the light tackle.

Reef/Wrecks:
The gulf wreck action has been really good. We always have summer Cobias around and lately they have been showing up in good numbers. The snapper and grouper bite has been good with gray snappers being caught up to about 5 lbs. The sharks are very active, most of them are bull and lemon sharks. As soon as you get a good chum slick started they are as far back in it as you can see. These powerhouse fish are very strong fighters and a challenge on light tackle. We have been battling nice size schools of Bonita at some of the other farther out gulf wrecks and by tying off to any of the dozens of shrimp boats anchored in the gulf. Shrimp boat fishing is some of the best action trips you could possibly go on.

Flats/BackCountry:
The flats and backcountry trips are heating up really good now. The Permit are returning in real good numbers to the flats after their spring spawn out on the wrecks and they are ready to feed. The average size permit the past few weeks has been around 20-25lbs. and very eager to feed. The bone fish are in good size schools with the average size fish weighing in around 7-8lbs. There are still lots of Tarpon here, the morning and late evening bite has been the best with the water temps rising. The Barracuda and Sharks are all over the flats; just about any bait thrown their direction is sure to get looked at. Basically any species that you target on the flats will be a good choice for a very productive trip in July.

This is Captain Paul Tryon, Give me a call to book your day with some of Key West’s 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