Hey guys

I figured another thread would be best.

Planning a trip with a small boat to the keys, and possible everglades area. Not a saltwater guy!

I know volumes have and could be written on saltwater fishing, but any tips or techniques? What about the types of fish one can catch? Regulations?

I will likely be limited to 15 miles from shore, as I will likely be bringing a zodiac with 15 horse.

Any info world be appreciated! Oh, and planning now for a three week trip in either december or january.

I’ve never fished Florida before but basically similar tactics for same thing we have here. It’s an awful lot of information to try to type and understand you can give me a shout anytime if you like and I can help you out as much as I can. 361-793-6706. As far as regulations and stuff prob best to look up like a Florida fishing forum or something like that and those guys will point you in the right direction or even talk to you more in depth about the exact area you’d be fishing

find bait, find structure or find structure that holds bait, and you will catch fish...

15 miles from shore in the Keys puts you in the gulf stream, could catch anything from small grunts near shore to a Marlin in the Gulf Stream.

The water is Clear as can be, you will need mono leaders for most fish, learn to tie mono to braid (if you are running braid). Live bait or frozen bait is going to be the go to unless you are one of those goofy fly fisherman targeting bone fish and Tarpon. The power of the fish is incredible and many of them are toothy, you tend to go through some rigs/gear so make sure you bring plenty of hooks with you (silver hooks only)

Beyond that I would just start watching youtube videos of fishing in the area, it is so diverse that it would take a mountain of text to sum up.

Might just do that! I never had to learn "another world" of fish. I cant ever recall not knowing about the fish in my area

I generally use a uni to uni knot. I have found it gets decent percent of line strength. Here I use about a 2-3 foot flurocarbon leader on 20 lb power pro. I heard somewhere you need circle hooks when fishing on reefs? I need to find the regs first and give them a good reading over.

And I can totally appreciate it being too much to text. Tough to compile a lifetime of learning into a few lines Thanks to everyone for the info so far!

Please do not get 15 miles into the ocean on your boat! Find some protected inside waters.

Hutchy might get caught up in the gulf stream and wind up on the west coast of Ireland.

YouTube.

There are a lot of species of non native, freshwater fish, that were introduced into Southern Florida and the Everglades that would be fun to fish for including oscars, peacock bass, plecostomus and walking catfish.

Keith

A three hour tour ,a three hour tour.....lol As stated above don’t go off shore with a 15 horse zodiac! Plenty of fishing to be done inshore! Have a great trip!

Tie a wire trace to your main line, then a hook .... put something as bait on the hook , Anything..... Shrimp, fish strips, a flip flop or a small tourist. Step two dangle said hook into the water and pull out a black tip shark. Its packed with those buggers here at the moment .... Take out the black tips and the high tide line would be a foot lower

I'm with Charles on this one...15 miles out with a 15 horse on a zodiac? I will look forward to your telling us just how that went.
Gotta be safe.

Osky

Your big pine fish camp is as good any place. If you take your zodiac north into the back country out of the big pine fish camp you can explore for the entire time your there and not get bored, or in over your head.


Spend your time googling with terms like Keys Backcountry Kayak fishing. Your range and comfort zone will be very similar to the Kayakers.


Just about any bait shop in the keys will sell you a Fish ID Booklet.


Get some 5" white, or similar berkely jerk shads on an 1/8th or 1/4 oz jig heads, and work them aggressively in the channels, and holes for jack crevalles. You can use the jacks for chuming up sharks.

The first to show up will be nurse sharks. Keep your bait away from them. They're sluggish, and not near as fun.


5/0 circle is fine.



Chopped and mashed up shrimp will also chum a lot of different fish up behind the boat.



An ultra light with a tiny tube jig will catch pinfish (especially if tipped with a little squid) which can be used for live bait for just about anything.




This guy gives up a lot of good info if you can sort through it.

Bait a hook and toss it in the water. Note: tie a line to the hook before you do that.

I never fished salt water, but id I was gonna id start here. Its very inspirational to say the least............

https://www.youtube.com/user/DarcizzleOffshore

Do yourself a huge favor and hire a guide to take you out. You will learn several years worth of information in one day.

I’d be going after those $10,000 Tuna if I ever went fishing in the ocean.

Buy one of the collapsible crab traps. I know very little about saltwater fishing. I have found lots of species eat and love crabs. The ones about 3-4 inches across are perfect. Get some 1 ounce lead heads to fish them on during the day. Fish them on or near the bottom of the bridge pile ons. At night just a good size circle hook. ( I've found circle hooks are the way to go for all fishing). Bull reds, tarpon, sharks, grouper. Brake the tips off shell, try and leave the pinchers
on, force hook through shell. Around the pile o s wear mechanic gloves. The oysters are rough on your hands. Also get a one of the decent dip nets with the 4' foot handles. The crabs will be crawling around at the water level and just net them if possible. Keep the bait as close to the pile ons as possible. Look for someone that rents kayaks. The pedal type. They are the way to fish. Again I'm not an accomplished salt water fisherman. But this works, but in the summer I know.

This was up at Panama City. Just a good bass rod and reel is all you need.

Plus what Carl said. We go every other year. I didn't want to pay 3-400 for a half day. I found a guy (Kayak Mike) that guides out of kayaks. $125 for a half day. Good money spent. I went and bought a Used Hobie Outback. But they are people that will rent the yaks for the week. If it weren't for hurricanes, humidity, cottonmouths, alligators, and Floridans, I could live there!