Baitfish of the Florida Keys, and How a Key Largo Charter Uses Them

The baitfish of the Florida Keys are the small fish a larger fish is already looking for. Off Key Largo the list that matters on a charter is concrete: ballyhoo, pilchards (scaled sardines), threadfin herring (greenbacks), goggle-eyes (bigeye scad), blue runners, mullet, glass minnows, cigar minnows, menhaden, and pinfish. Those ten are the bait bench. They are not ten different trips.

Miss Chief Charters, run by Capt. Dan Matthews, leaves Key Largo Harbor Marina at 400 Ocean Drive on the 34-foot Miss Chief, a Crusader sportfisher. On that boat the same list feeds two jobs. Offshore, live bait goes on a kite, or into the live-bait and trolling spread, for sailfish, mahi, and tuna. From October through May the boat stays closer and live-baits wrecks. If you remember those two uses, the species notes below stay honest.

Two jobs, not a bait cookbook

Kite fishing and wreck live-baiting ask for different things from a bait. A kite bait has to swim at the surface and stay alive while a kite holds it there. The four baits this charter has named for that work are goggle-eyes, pilchards, threadfin herring, and ballyhoo. Sailfish are the first priority on an offshore day. Mahi are second. Tuna, wahoo, and a rare marlin sit behind them. Sailfish and marlin are released.

A wreck bait, in the cooler months, has to be tough enough to fish structure in 50 to 300 feet, six to ten miles out, for grouper, amberjack, cobia, and kingfish. October through May is when that closer plan replaces the long Gulf Stream run. Bait, tackle, the license, fuel, and ice are included. The well is whatever the morning allows. A specific bait is not guaranteed.

Ballyhoo

Ballyhoo are halfbeaks. The lower jaw runs past the upper, the back is blue-green, and they skip at the surface when something charges them. That surface life is why they are a kite bait. On this charter they are one of the four live baits named for sailfish, mahi, and tuna. They are also a natural trolling size when the offshore day is a troll instead of a kite. Same target list either way. A ballyhoo in the well is not a promise of mahi.

Pilchards, or scaled sardines

Pilchards are scaled sardines: a deeper body than a herring, obvious scales, often yellow-green in a shallow school. Docks sometimes call them whitebait, and that word gets used loosely. This charter names them for the kite, with goggle-eyes, threadfin herring, and ballyhoo, for sailfish, mahi, and tuna. They also fit the chumming the boat already does. Live pilchards over the side are how a slick of bait gets started. How many, and when, is the captain’s call, not a recipe. They are the bait those fish eat. They are not a guarantee the fish will be there.

Threadfin herring, or greenbacks

Threadfin herring have a long filament on the last dorsal ray and a green back, which is why crews call them greenbacks. They school, and they are fragile next to a jack or a pinfish. Rough handling leaves you with a dead bait that only looks alive. They are named for the kite, for sailfish, mahi, and tuna. They are not the bait a winter wreck day is built on. The kite is the job they are on the list for.

Goggle-eyes, or bigeye scad

Goggle-eyes are bigeye scad. The eye is the field mark, and a line of hard scutes runs along the tail. They are often caught around lights at night, so a morning kite can depend on what was available before sunrise. On this boat they are a named kite bait for sailfish, mahi, and tuna, and sailfish are the offshore fish put first. They are not promised every sailing. If the well has pilchards and greenbacks and no goggle-eyes, the kite still goes out.

Blue runners, or hardtails

Blue runners, or hardtails, are jacks. The tail base is armored, and the fish stays alive longer than a sardine. They are on this list because a live-bait day needs a bait that lasts: on the kite for sailfish, mahi, and tuna, and on the wrecks from October through May for grouper, amberjack, cobia, and kingfish. There is no program that assigns them to only one of those fish.

Mullet

Mullet are the blunt-headed baitfish at the surface in the harbor. The hook size is the smaller finger mullet. They are hardy, and they jump, which helps at the surface and can tangle a kite. On this charter they are a live bait for the offshore spread and for wreck live-baiting in the cooler months. They do not create another kind of trip.

Glass minnows, or silversides

Glass minnows and silversides are the small, translucent end of the list. They are not a sailfish kite bait. A kite bait has to be large enough to see and strong enough to swim away from the boat. They still belong here because they are often what the larger baitfish are eating, on the patch reef or under birds offshore. The captain uses them when the day calls for something tiny, including chum. They are not a secret bait with a target species of their own.

Cigar minnows

Cigar minnows are a longer, rounder schooling scad than a pilchard, about the size of the cigar they are named for. Fresh is not the same as frozen, and frozen is not a fish that is still swimming. A cigar minnow is large enough to fish live on the offshore spread and large enough to troll, for sailfish, mahi, and tuna, with wahoo in that same mix. They are a middle bait: not the first kite choice the way a goggle-eye or a ballyhoo is, and not automatically the wreck bait a pinfish can be.

Menhaden

Menhaden are the oily bait on the list. The body is deep and the flesh is soft. A kite wants a bait that swims and flashes. An oily, soft fish is a poor kite bait, and this page will not pretend otherwise. Menhaden fit the other half of the work: chum, and a chunk on a hook when a live bait is the wrong tool. This charter already chums and live-baits. You do not book a menhaden trip. You book the offshore day or the wreck day, and the well is loaded for whichever of those two jobs the season allows.

Pinfish

Pinfish are small, deep-bodied, and spiny, with a dark spot at the shoulder. They stay alive in a well longer than a herring. On this charter they line up with the cooler-month wreck trip more than with the kite. From October through May the boat live-baits structure for grouper, amberjack, cobia, and kingfish, in 50 to 300 feet, six to ten miles out. A pinfish can do that work. It is a strange choice for a sailfish kite. The morning still decides. Pinfish are on the list because the wreck season needs a tough live bait, not because every fish of the winter eats one on command.

What this list will not do

It will not put you on a GPS number. The wrecks are not named on this site, and they will not be named here. It will not turn tilefish into a product. The captain does not sell deep-drop tilefish trips. He says those deep-drop grounds are ruined, and you can hardly catch anything on them anymore. The wreck trip and the offshore trip are the two live-bait days. The patch reef, two to three miles out, is a different charter, with its own smaller hooks and its own pace, covered in the family fishing piece.

For the kite and those four baits, read the sailfish kite page and book offshore in the November-through-April window. For live bait on structure, book the wreck trip from October through May. The bait is already on the boat.

Plan the day

The boat is private, the whole boat, six people at most. No fish is guaranteed, and no single bait is guaranteed. Check dates at /book or call 305-393-2430 and say whether you are thinking offshore or wrecks. The season picks the bait program more reliably than a wish list does.