Key Largo has two front doors. Florida Bay and the backcountry on one side, the patch reefs and channels on the other, and a bay boat that can fish both in the same morning. This is what lives out there and when it shows up.
The backcountry is a different kind of fishing than what happens offshore, and it attracts a different kind of person. There is no long run and no fighting chair. There is shallow water, a pushpole or a trolling motor, and a fish you often see before you cast at it.
Florida Bay holds redfish, snook and Spanish mackerel through the cooler months, and the flats give up bonefish and permit when it warms. Tarpon show up on the spring migration and stack around the bridges and channel edges. The patch reefs and creeks hold mangrove snapper more or less all year, which is the trip to book when the goal is dinner rather than a photo.
Mahi, sailfish, swordfish and the rest of the offshore lineup are real fishing, they are just not this boat's job. That work runs out of Islamorada on the family's bigger boats, and Brian will point you there rather than take you somewhere the boat does not belong.
Seasons move a few weeks either way with the weather. For a month-by-month read on your exact dates, use the season calendar.
For sight fishing it is bonefish and permit in the warm months, and tarpon on the spring migration. For a cooler full of dinner it is mangrove snapper year round or Spanish mackerel in winter. Redfish and snook are the year-round middle ground.
No. Most of these fish are caught on light spinning tackle with live bait. Fly is welcome if that is your thing, and Brian will pole for it, but nothing here requires it.
Often yes. The bay boat runs both, and a half day that starts on the flats and ends on a patch reef is a common ask.
Not on this boat. That fishing runs out of Islamorada on the family's bigger boats, and Brian will get you on the right one.
Then say so when you call. Sight fishing rewards patience more than skill, and a first-timer on live bait catches fish all the time.
Mahi, sailfish, wahoo, swordfish and tuna are the Islamorada fleet's work, on boats built for the run. Same family, bigger water.