2/8/18 February Key Largo Fishing Report

Well I’ve been back for a week or so now just hadn’t updated the site yet.  Though I fished the last 3 days and things were still pretty good here in Key Largo fishing!  Two days ago we got on a killer spanish mackerel bite in the gulf bays of key largo.  After about 20 minutes of chumming the water, it was fast and furious with mackerel on just about every cast.  We worked the upper water column with shrimp on jigs real fast, and it did the trick.  We loaded up with mackerels and in an hour ventured on to the next thing.  We found a good load of tarpon which I was happy to see.  They usually start to show up in key largo this time of year, as long as it stays warm.  The tarpon fishing was good for us, not red hot but we had two bites and made them both count.  My angler Larry landed a 110 and 140 lb tarpon, very big fish!  It was a great day.  The last two days I had my regular customers Steve and Jim out and they like to catch smaller stuff, mostly for the dinner table.  We got our limit of nice size mangrove snappers both days.  The first day we didn’t find much else in the bay, tried to get some trout but not much luck with that, but plenty of jack crevelles and a lot of catfish!  Today we mixed it up more on the patch reefs and local bay, we had more jacks, spanish mackerel, a variety of other snappers, groupers, hogfish, porgy, and even snook!  It was action all day long and plenty of good eating fish for the boys.  Well just wanted to give you all an update, give me a shout if you are visiting key largo in the spring.  I still have some days in March open but tarpon season (april – june) is booking up fast!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Author: Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Florida Keys Fishing Captain born and raised in Islamorada, FL!