Key West Pro Guides Offshore Report - March 2023
By: Capt. Paul Tryon
With March's arrival the fishing action explodes in Key West! We are entering a time of some of the best fishing action of the entire year. Tarpon have begun to arrive and are flooding into shallows of the back country. This becomes our fastest paced action trip with a wide variety of sport fish and predators for the light tackle angler to pursue. Sailfish are offshore, Permit are cruising the flats and the bottom dwellers of the reef and deeper wrecks are gathering in numbers. It's a time of exceptional action when fishing in the waters of Key West!
March kicks off our Tarpon season in Key West. See “Back Country” helpful insights to anglers interested in Tarpon fishing.
Deep Sea/Offshore: The iconic Sailfish bite is on! March remains an excellent period for Kingfish action as well. Big "Smoker" Kingfish continue providing excellent action offshore and recently nearer the reef. March sees an explosion in the aggressiveness of Black Fin Tuna. There are few species of pelagic fish capable of the total chaos when a school of big Black Fin show up. Mahi action for early March remains slow but towards the end of March seemingly overnight they will come to life as there are more and more Mahi around in our waters every day. The predators remain super aggressive with March being an awesome month for large Barracuda. We have moved into an exciting period for offshore angling however, we believe a 1/2 day charter still has some challenges with ever changing travel times between marina and fishing grounds. Best bet book at least the 3/4 day (six hour trip) especially if you are a party of three or four or more. We do not recommend more than 4 anglers for the ultimate light tackle offshore experience. Remember light tackle boats operate without a deck-mate. Regardless of experience, talent or effort one pair of hands may assist only so many anglers timely. We do have six passenger licensed vessels in our fleet with guides willing to accommodate these larger parties however it should be understood more than 4 anglers aboard will have some affects and likely will lessen the experience. Deep Sea/Light Tackle Offshore ………….Target Species:
Barracuda…”Very Good”
Blackfin Tuna…”Very Good”
Dolphin (Mahi-Dorado)…:”Fair to Good” improving vastly by months end.
Kingfish…”Excellent”
Sailfish…”Excellent”
Shark…”Excellent”
Spanish Mackerel…”Excellent”
Wahoo…”Slow”
Notable: This is a time of more stable slowly rising water temperatures so fishing conditions in general will settle in and improve, friends. We still recommend fishing morning trips if going shallow as they remain the most productive over the later afternoon hours for the serious angler but again the afternoon trips are good. The PM half day trips have improved and can be quite enjoyable especially for those people just looking to stay in calm waters and enjoy a fun few hours catching fish. Reef trips in the afternoon fishing slightly deeper waters along with the patch reefs can be very good trips for later in the day departure times. Sharks are plentiful and active. Pursuing these heavy weight monsters on light tackle is challenging to say the least and talk about something you cannot do at home!
Let's go Fishing!
Call Key West Pro Guides today to book your charter 305-747-4650 daily 8 AM to 9 PM. Remember 2-4 weeks in advance is recommended for peak fishing season dates December through June. Our legendary guide team is always in high demand. We look forward to your call!
www.keywestproguides.com
305-747-4650
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