Fishing Marquesas and Dry Tortugas

[SawyerTed]

Has anybody fished out of Key West in the Marquesas and Dry Tortugas/Fort Jefferson?

I have an opportunity to fish 4 days and 3 nights aboard a charter with 4 others in April.  

How is fishing in late April?  We will do a mixture of trolling, bottom fishing and casting depending upon conditions and travel schedule. 

I’m thinking Mackerel, Mahi, tuna and sailfish trolling - snappers and grouper bottom fishing - Mahi, tuna and Mackerel casting. 

I’m looking forward to the trip.  I’ve been on many day long charters off the NC coast, out of Marathon and out of Ketchikan.  This will be the first overnight charter.  We will be on board a 45-50 sportfisher.  

[ljohnsaw]

That sounds like a lot of fun.  Best of luck to you!

[TroyC]

The only problem you might have is windy weather that time of the year. March is usually WINDY, mid May it starts to get predictably calm. Fishing should be good, might try for some Wahoo with red/black teasers. The Marquesas and Dry Tortugas are beautiful. Lots of migrants in the area down there now. They had to close the park last week because it was full of migrants that came ashore at Ft Jefferson.

If you are down that way late May, the tarpon capital of the world is Bahai Honda Bridge. Hire a guide and get ready to exercise some muscles. They tarpon are following the palalo worm hatch.

[KEC]

I don't know if this is of interest to you, but migrating birds will land on the Dry Tortugas and there is no fresh water. If it is still there, there was a place that maintained a bird bath that attracts tons of birds that just crossed the Caribean and are thirsty. Think warblers that can't hide in the tree foilage. Have a great trip.

[caveman]

You may want to check out the Florida Sportsman area reports over the past several years.  When I used to fish a lot, I had a subscription to the magazine for many years.  They would do area reports.  I would read through several years of the action spotter reports from previous years covering the months and areas I intended to fish prior to fishing a new area.  Most of this is online now.

I've never fished there but my uncle and my folks went down to the Tortugas several years ago.  They are not hard-core fishermen, but they caught a lot of grouper and snapper.  Their captain and crew were stoners, possibly trafficking illegal substances. It was not a great experience for them.  Fishing that region is on my list of things to do.

[Seachaser]

We fished out of Islamorada using a guide from Bud and Mary’s. Last week in March. First time it was windy, but we found a spot out of the wind and the fishing was non stop. Took our catch about 50 yards from the Marina and they cooked them up. Last year we fished for Tarpon with the same guide. Jumped a couple and caught a ton of big sharks. Really was not impressed with Key West. But to each his own. 

[SawyerTed]

We don’t love Key West much either but it is the “jumping off point” for fishing the Dry Tortugas and Marquesas.

[TroyC]

I make a yearly trip to the Keys, used to do two or three a year. I go early August. Used to always go to Key West for one evening but since the cruise ships started coming in, the place changed for me. Last time in Key West I figured I'm just getting too old...............
I can go a lot of places and get overpriced food and terrible service.

Parking is a big issue, be sure to have that arranged with your guide people. Unless they have a space you will probably end up in the parking garage near the charter boats. $$$$

I've heard some of the overnight trips are really great but I've never been on one.

I think some of the fishing regulations have changed. Last I saw I think the crew can no longer count in the catch/possession limit but I haven't really kept up with it. I think they are lowering daily Mahi limits to be a little more reasonable.

Should be a nice trip. Hope you have nice weather!

[SawyerTed]

 

 

 
It turned out to be an awesome trip.

We caught a variety of fish including red grouper, mutton snapper, yellowtail snapper, mahi mahi, king mackerel, amberjack, and some others.  

We left the marina on Thursday and trolled out to federal waters and began bottom fishing.  We hopped from spot to spot until we ended at Garden Key/Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas.



 
Premature post- 

We fished through Saturday evening.  Some of the bad weather on Sunday prevented us from fishing.  Got back to the marina Sunday afternoon.  

We hired a fish cutter to clean the fish.  He cuts fish for the restaurants in the Keys.  Needless to say he was fast!  

We booked a Miami peacock bass trip this morning and had a good morning!  We caught many beautiful fish!