Fishing for Snapper in Key West is a great adventure! The Best eating fish and pound for pound the hardest fighting fish in the ocean. There are over 100 species of snapper with only 4 or 5 types common in the Key West area. Snapper species range in weight from the smallest lane snapper to the largest mutton snapper.

Snapper are in season around Key West from spring through fall, with spring and early summer having vast numbers of yellowtails along the Atlantic reef just a few miles offshore. Fishing for them with a light spinning outfit, small hook or a tiny piece of bonito or other fish is great fun and a perfect day out for the total beginner as well as the experienced angler.

Come experience the best fishing adventure of your life aboard the Sea-Clusion. See why fishing for Snapper in Key West, Florida aboard our boat is the most enjoyable and the most affordable Key West Fishing charter available in the Florida Keys.

Tuna fishing is best in and around Key West. Most Tuna caught in Key West is black fin tuna; although yellow fin tuna are caught here it’s very rare. Tuna fishing is done trolling often on the offshore sea mounts, or even just past where the reef drops off. Tuna are also targeted on the deeper wrecks using various methods including jigging. Captains like to use live chum to lure the tuna. Small baits such as pilchards, cluster around the boat for safety as the predator fish rise and surround the boat to eat them.

Available only certain times of the year, is fishing for Tuna behind shrimp boats. Shrimp boats troll and net small fish and crab which most die and then are thrown over board. This chum line of dead fish attracts many predator fish including tuna and provides many hours of action packed fishing.

Come experience the best fishing adventure of your life aboard the Sea-Clusion. See why fishing for Tuna in Key West Florida aboard our boat is the most enjoyable and affordable Key West Fishing charter available in the Florida Keys.

The Sailfish is one of the glamour species you can find in deep blue waters of the Florida Keys. They are sometimes known as the fish that “walk on water”. Sailfish have been seen to “run” along the surface of the water for over 200 feet using nothing but their wriggling tails as support.

Majority of Sailfish can be found within two miles off shore which makes them an accessible and often willing target species. Oftentimes you can often catch Sailfish while trolling for other species such as Dolphin and Kingfish. You Sailfish fishing in the Florida Keys are available throughout the year with January and February being the best time.

When choosing bait, most Sailfish strike rigged baits made up of strip baits or dead ballyhoo, but on occasion strike trolled artificial bait. On some days you can get multiple shots this way. Primarily, the best way to fish for Sailfish is by trolling using ‘dredge” or “daisy chain” teasers and carefully rigged swimming baits at crawling slow speeds. This is great fun and a real challenge for anglers as well as crewmembers. However, the most successful way to catch a Sailfish on a Key West fishing charter is by the use of live bait.

Come relax and enjoy yourself aboard the Sea-Clusion. See why fishing for Sailfish in Key West Florida is one of the most enjoyable and affordable charters available in the Florida Keys.

One of the most sought after game fish during late spring and throughout summer is the Dolphin. Also known as Mahi Mahi or Dorado. Dolphin can range in size from 3 to 60 lbs. You can find them throughout the Florida Keys. They are fast, flashy with beautiful dots of blue, yellow, green and even red color.

Dolphins roam offshore near the edge of tropical reefs. Fisherman prefer to fish for them in waters that are 300 to 500 feet deep, and even up to 1,00 feet. A key to Dolphin fishing is to look for floating debris. Debris may be floating boards, palm trees and fronds, pallets that may have fallen off of freighters, or Sargasso weed lines. These are stereotypical dolphin magnets that the fish love to hang under.

Also, when searching for Dolphin, look for frigate birds. Frigate birds dive for food near debris or weed lines. Other feeding offshore birds, such as petrels, show the way to success with dolphin fishing. Our experienced captains and veteran anglers determine what species likely lies beneath them by the birds’ behavior.

Relax and enjoy yourself aboard the Sea-Clusion and see why fishing for Dolphin in Key West Florida is one of the most enjoyable and affordable charters available in the Florida Keys.

With so many wild stories floating around about the BP oil spill , I felt that a little reminder that Key West and the fishing here has not been affected.  So I did a near shore survey of some of my favorite places in Key West and guess what ?  NO OIL! This is not really surprising because we are 500 miles from the gushing geyser  and thick plumes that are plaguing the coast in the northern Gulf.

Our charter today from Brazil showed us a new technique for catching big Dolphin.  Trolling in about 600 feet of water this fish was swimming very casually near the boat. When we got real close he went down and we thought we had missed him. He was just working a strategy to get more of our baits. He ate the long rigger and swam straight to the flat line and ate it. The hook set from the flat line woke him up and our new friends brought in the 25# Bull Dolphin on two lines – really fast. It may not be IGFA , but on a Key West charter it was just right.

With the end of the world looming in the news we decided to go out and catch all the fish. Apparently we are not fishing hard enough. Every day are charters are catching lots of fish . Not “just” big Dolphin and small eating Dolphin but Large Sailfish and Wahoo. Key West fishing is really as good as it gets right now with hours of fish cutting at the end of the day and trophy fish on every trip. I knew I loved this job, and when the fishing gets like this and continues for weeks like it has  I have to pinch myself to make sure its not a dream.

Jay seems happy .

Joe finally won this fight , I had my doubts for a minute.

Do you see any oil in this picture?

“Just” another 20 pound Dolphin caught by our charter in Key West today.

Braving the 20kt. winds and high seas our charter  found the big Dolphin are migrating off shore in  Key West. A slow start and a lot of success stories on the radio were starting to make me wonder . Then about two hours into the trip a 20 lb Dolphin from out of the blue lifted our spirits.  We spotted a couple of frigate birds low to the water and flying fish getting up over a large area . For the next two hours we fought fish sometimes two and three at a time. The school was broken up and we were  hunting more birds. We caught more fish the rest of day one and two at a time with 30 – 45 minute breaks while locating the next frigate. At the end of the day we had over two hundred lbs of Dolphin. All to be enjoyed by friends and family with tales of the sea.  The action and the exceptional ride of our 46′ Bertram made the deep sea very smooth, light current might have helped too.

Special mention for the quality of young eyes at spotting frigates off the coast of Cuba . Once he got the range to look  down to two miles we did great. Amazing how much more to see out there.

I really like this part where everybody is looking to see if they have their fish and is it the biggest.

This  coming Saturday , May 1st, We will be able to keep grouper we catch fishing in Key West again. The NMFS in there infinite wisdom has closed Grouper fishing in the majority of the Atlantic Ocean for the last four months. All has not been lost however , we have been diligently training grouper in Key West to not be afraid of hooks. Like the one in this picture , which was caught by our charter  in a very secret place in 8 feet of water, they have been released  to school there fellow groupers that it is safe to eat the hook. I think I will be eating a Grouper sandwich this Sunday.