Welcome to May
For the “ADD” afflicted angler, May might well be the worst month of the year. I am hard pressed to think of a single species that calls the Keys home -or is even known to pass through, that is not available right now. It doesn’t matter if you prefer inshore, reef or offshore; everything you could wish for is on the table. For the inshore angler the tarpon migration is in full swing. Oceanside has the migrating fish available to the fly casting types like nowhere else in the world. Back country flats have fish wandering from channel to channel willing to stop for a bite on any fin feather or shell cast their way. The shallow basins have fish laid up sunning in the calm still waters between the tides. The bridges and channels are packed with fish refueling for their travels up the coast. While the bridges will be holding plenty of fish, I prefer to fish the channels that are not crossed by bridges. Not necessarily because there are more fish, but because I have a chance to land more fish without having to work around the bridge pilings. In the skinnier water, the permit that haven’t traveled to the wrecks to spawn and the bonefish are belly to the bottom in the warmer waters for the tasty crustaceans that they prefer. Where the food is the sharks are sure to follow. Bull, lemon, and blacktip are to be expected on the channel edges and deeper flats. Tracking the bigger members of the submarine tooth squad are schools of hard hitting jack crevalle and the occasional mutton snapper. Barracuda, trout and redfish round out the targets on the Lower Keys flats. All in all you can keep pretty busy and never fish in water over your waist. For the angler who likes to moonlight as a gourmet chef, the reef is open for business. It is time for those who have been patiently waiting for the opening of grouper season in Monroe County adjacent water to rejoice. The grouper that have been being returned to the water time and time again over the last four months, by the law abiding are in for a surprise. The same reefs that are holding the grouper are filling with mangrove snapper gathering for their summer spawn. Over the last few years, the snapper bite has been getting earlier and this year may be no different. The deeper reefs and wrecks are host to mutton snapper and amberjack that are spawning now and eager to take a bait and bring unwary anglers to their knees. Offshore is a veritable who’s who in big game name dropping. The largest dolphin of the year are moving through from now until next month. For anglers that have a super slammer on their bucket list, now is the time to fulfill that dream. Over the years, the FUNYET has been lucky enough to have taken a half dozen “supers” over fifty pounds including one just shy of seventy. They have all been caught in May and June. Wahoo and tuna are in the area and where you find one you can surely find the other. As tough and fast as the tuna seem to be, the wahoo are designed to run them down and disassemble them in short order. Of course sailfish are still in the area and if you can find a color edge in the first couple hundred feet of water, there will most likely be sails tailing down the edge willing to stop for an offering of live pilchard, ballyhoo or blue runner. While you are filling the bucket you might as well put a Keys offshore slam of sailfish, wahoo and dolphin in the pail. Just when you thought that deciding what fish to chase the Keys couldn’t get any more difficult. Welcome to May!
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