Key Largo Fishing Seasons: What Is Biting, and When

Key Largo fishing season is several seasons stacked on one dock. Mahi run spring through fall. Sailfish run winter through spring, November through April on this charter’s site. Blackfin tuna are here year-round, stronger from March through June and again from September through November. October through May the boat stays closer and live-baits wrecks. Summer it chases mahi, wahoo, and tuna toward the Gulf Stream, upwards of 25 miles. A 4-hour offshore trip works in spring and early summer. In August the fish are too far for four hours.

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. He has run the charter for 15 years. The calendar below is his, plus the species windows already on the site. It is not a promise that a given Tuesday will bite. No fish is guaranteed in any month.

Fish that do not leave

Snapper and grouper are the year-round reef fish. On the patch reef, two to three miles out, they are what a family trip is built on. Farther out, on wrecks and ledges at six to ten miles and 50 to 300 feet, grouper sit with amberjack, cobia, and kingfish. The snapper names on the site include mutton, gray, mangrove, yellowtail, and lane, plus hogfish. What you may keep depends on the Florida rule that morning. Legal fish are filleted at the dock.

Tuna and wahoo are also on the year-round list. Blackfin are the tuna this boat is usually talking about. They can be caught all year, stronger in spring from March through June and in fall from September through November. The site describes jigging them over wrecks and humps, and catching them while trolling the deeper reef. Wahoo sit on that same year-round line, and they are also part of the summer Gulf Stream chase. Year-round does not mean a four-hour August trip will reach fish that have moved offshore.

The calm version of this year-round fishing is the intro to fishing trip, two, three, or four hours. The family page explains the pace: the captain baits the hooks, and the point is to teach, not to fill a cooler.

Spring and early summer

This is when a shorter offshore day still makes sense. Mahi are in season, spring through fall, and they are closer. Four hours is enough when the fish have not pushed out. Sailfish are still inside the November-through-April window early in spring, so a spring offshore day can be a sailfish day that also finds mahi. Blackfin are in their stronger spring window, March through June.

Book the deep sea charter if that mix is what you want. Four hours if he agrees the fish are close. Six or eight if you want more time once you are there. Live bait and trolling are the two methods. The kite, and the baits named for it, are on the sailfish page. The baits themselves are on the baitfish page: goggle-eyes, pilchards, threadfin herring, and ballyhoo for the kite, and a longer list for the rest of the well. Sailfish are released. Mahi, if you catch them and the rules allow, can come home.

Summer and the Gulf Stream

In summer the mahi, wahoo, and tuna move out. He chases them into the Gulf Stream, upwards of 25 miles. August is his example: the fish are 25 miles out, and you cannot do that on a four-hour. Four hours of offshore fishing in August is a ride, not a mahi plan. Book six or eight, or stay closer.

The mahi page is the long version. Weedlines, debris, and birds are how Keys boats find mahi once they are in that water. You still have to reach it. Out there, the boat is not wreck fishing, and the deep-drop tilefish trip is not for sale. Those grounds are ruined, and you can hardly catch anything. Stay on the wrecks if you do not want the long run.

Late spring through late summer is the blue marlin window on the site. It stays a rare shot, not a week you build around one fish. If one comes up, it is released.

October through May: closer, and live bait

From October through May the plan changes. He works closer water: still the wrecks and ledges, not the far Gulf Stream. In winter he live-baits those wrecks instead of trolling out, for grouper, amberjack, cobia, and kingfish. The trip is the deep reef and wreck charter, four, six, or eight hours. The wreck page has the distances, the depths, and the tilefish refusal.

Mahi are a fall fish on the front end of this stretch. After that they are not the point. Sailfish take over the offshore story as the water cools. If you have a mahi-only week in November, call before you assume the summer pattern is still in force.

Any fishing charter can end with fish filleted and bagged, and a restaurant recommendation after. The catch-and-cook page is that ending: the ocean has the final say. The dedicated listing is the catch-and-cook charter, two or four hours on the calm reef. A wreck day can feed the same ending. Dinner is still not guaranteed, and no restaurant is named here, because he has not named a standing one.

Sailfish, from late November through April

The site says Key Largo sees sailfish November through April. His own start is more specific: the second half of November, it cools off, and the sailfish show up. September, October, and November are the slow months he names on the dock, partly because kids go back to school and the weeks before the holidays are softer. He does not really count the season as back until December. The fishing does not pause for that. The dock is quieter while the sailfish are arriving.

Sailfish are priority one on an offshore day. Mahi are second, then wahoo, then blackfin, then a marlin if one appears. In the cooler months the method is live bait, including the kite, not a long troll into the Stream as the default. Every sailfish is released. There is no promised photo and no promised bite. Book offshore inside November through April if a sailfish is why you came. Book the wreck if you would rather pull on amberjack.

Hours, trips, and the days that are not about a bite

Match the hours to the season, then match the trip to the people.

The intro and the catch-and-cook trips stay on the patch reef. They do not become offshore because you booked four hours. The wreck trip is the middle distance, and the main plan from October through May. Offshore is sailfish, mahi, wahoo, tuna, and that rare marlin. Four hours offshore only when the fish are close. The swordfish charter is eight or ten hours, daytime, and the hard adult trip. Most people do not want the ten. No depth is published, and no fish is guaranteed. The swordfish page is the warning label.

Three trips are not about a bite. The sandbar is Rodriguez Key and the Mosquito Sandbar, about three feet, swimming, private, six people, busy in summer. A few masks for a look around the sandbar only. Not a snorkel charter and not a party. Details are on the sandbar page. On a four-hour he has fished first and gone to the sandbar after. Ask. It is not automatic.

The sunset cruise is two, three, or four hours, with the start time moved through the year so you are out for the sunset. It is not a fishing trip. Date night and golden hour are two names for the same cruise.

The memorial is about two hours, nearshore, shallow reef, anchored, often around sunset. People search “burial at sea.” They almost always mean ashes. The burial page is the quiet version of that, including what this boat will not pretend to do.

Plan the day

Pick the fish, then the month, then the hours. The boat is private, six people at most, and no fish is guaranteed. Tackle, bait, license, fuel, and ice are on the fishing trips. If the morning weather is wrong, the captain says so. The calendar is at /book. The phone is 305-393-2430. Tell him the species and the week before you lock four hours of August mahi.