Fishing in Key West

The wife and I are planning a trip to Key West next year four our 10th year anniversary. As her gift, she has agreed to take a fishing charter out for a day while we are there. As you would expect, I’m a happy guy! Now I just have to think of something for her, I see a day at the spa (I know I will have to go too…).

The day that she agreed to taking a full day of our trip to do some fishing, I spent hours on the computer doing some research. I have never been deep sea fishing before so I’m pretty green and really didn’t know where to start.

The first thing I had to figure out is exactly what kind of fishing does Key West offer? I believe I have it down to the following:

Bottom Fishing aka Party Boats

This is when you go out on a large boat with people you may not know and deadline fish off the side. I have actually done this is Aruba years ago. It is a relaxing time and fun for the whole family. The down side is that you will be with others that you will not know. The up side is the price. Since you are buying your seat and not the boat for the day, you can do this for about $60. You catch plenty of fish and you never know what you might hook into. You will catch a range from buetiful colorful fish or a Grouper, Snappers or even a shark. Again, you never know what you will hook into. It just depends on what is hanging out around the reefs that day.

Flats Fishing

Fishing the flats, you will rent your captain for the day. You will be taken to very shallow water that is between 1 to 4 feet deep. I was wondering about fishing in such shallow water but then I found out we would be going some large monsters up to 150 pounds! The captain will spot bonefish, permit, tarpon, barracuda and shark. This type of fishing remonds my of hunting. You sneak up on the fish and cast to them before they see you. This would be fun but not sure if my wife would agree.

Light Tackle Fishing

Sounding more like what I’m use to, light tackle fishing turned out to be more interesting than I thought it would be. Since there is no crew, all the work goes to you and your captain. There are different types of fishing that can be done like kite fishing, spot fishing or drifting live baits. This can land you sailfish and tarpon which I would be siked to hook into. The boat set up is fast  to be able to cover more water with your time.

There are a couple other ways to fish in Key West that you might like but I think I have made up my mind that I believe will satisfy my excitement of getting back out on big water and give my wife a relaxing time. She has agreed to take the Light Tackle Fishing trip which gives me a chance to hook into my fish of a lifetime. So, we both get a chance to land the largest of our lives, she gets some relaxing time while drifting or running kites and make a memory of a lifetime.

Though the other fishing trips sounds like a great time, we did the party boat thing once before and I just don’t think flat fishing would keep her interest (I would do this if other guys were going).

Anyway, we have a little over a year before our trip and I have already paid the down payment to lock us in. We can’t!

Have you done any Key West fishing? If so, tell us how your trip went in the comments below. I’m interested in hearing what you have to say.