As we enter into the fall fishing season, I start getting excited. Fall is one of my favorite seasons in the Florida Keys for offshore and inshore fishing as well as lobster diving and spearfishing.
One of the biggest changes we’re seeing right now is that the mahi bite seems to be getting a lot better. This summer, most anglers would agree the mahi bite was slow, with lower quality and quantity than usual. Some anglers blame it on our record heat wave; some blame it on the increase of commercial mahi fisherman in the Bahamas, cutting our mahi off at the pass; and some blame it on our increased fishing pressure here at home. Many anglers were expecting a banner mahi season since the daily mahi bag limit was recently reduced by FWC. We have seen better quality and quantity mahi caught this August and expect September and October to be an awesome mahi bite as well.
Another theory about why the mahi bite is picking up in dramatic fashion is that the fish simply had a late migration this year into the Florida Keys. With the fall season come tropical storms and hurricanes, and when it comes to mahi fishing, we have a love-hate relationship with these cyclones. Needless to say, we hate when the tropical storms and hurricanes come close enough to keep us off the water, but we love the debris we find floating offshore after the storms with high wind and waves.
One of my favorite times to fish for mahi is right after a tropical storm or hurricane passes us. The blackfin tuna bite gets better at the Marathon Humps too, not to mention that wahoo start showing up.
Fall is also great for post-spawn snapper fishing. We like to anchor in the back country near East Bahia in Honda Key in four to six feet of water on grass flats with Swiss cheese-shaped sand pockets. We chum them up and fish for them with live pilchards or small pinfish. On days when we can’t find live bait, we do well with chunks of ballyhoo on a jig head.
Mutton snapper come in closer in the fall and are caught in much shallower water inside the reefs. The yellowtail snapper bite picks up at the reef due to decreased offseason pressure, and larger schoolmaster snapper start showing up around the bridges.
Another fish we like to target in early fall is yellow jacks. When I tell clients we’re going to go to target yellow jacks, many times they say, “Captain, we’ve already caught jack crevalles before, and although they’re fun, they’re not good table fare.” Then I explain the difference to them. Some biologists claim that yellow jacks aren’t indigenous to this area and showed up two or three decades ago. They fight like a jack crevalle, but they taste like a permit or pompano – excellent table fare.
We also like to slow troll for grouper inside the reefs and under and beside bridges. We use stretch 30s and also occasionally use planers with jigs and plastic. Once the water cools down more, gamefish move in closer, which makes spearfishing better in the fall than the summer.
We also like to lobster dive in early fall. This year, the commercial lobster fisherman say it’s one of the best lobster years they’ve seen in decades. Most of the commercial lobster fishermen have been getting their lobster in deeper water, and mostly on the Atlantic side. Another sign that the lobster have not migrated into the shallow waters of the Gulf in big numbers is that the commercial bully netters have had a real tough time catching lobster so far. Some commercial lobster fishermen say that the lobster are hanging in deeper water because of our heat wave, while some also say that part of the reason they’ve had such a hot start is because we had terrible weather both days of mini-season, preventing tourists from putting a dent in the lobster migration,. Rather than during mini-season or even opening week, we tell our lobster clients to come down lobster diving in September and October, when we seem to catch better quality and quantity.
Another good thing about fishing and diving in the fall is that the kids have gone back to school, and the tourist off-season is here, meaning less crowded hotels, motels and vacation rental homes are easier to reserve at a reduced off-season price.
I hope we dodge all direct hits from tropical storms and hurricanes this fall and hope to fish, dive and spear with you in our beautiful Florida Keys.
To book a charter with Ana Banana, call or text Capt. Joel at 813-267-4401 or Capt. Jojo at 305-879-0564, or visit anabananafishing.com.
