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Fishing Tackle
Florida Keys - Part 1 : fishing in the Keys
23 April 2009
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As much as many of us thrive on our deepest, darkest, winter fishing, and indeed it can be a time to catch some quality fish, of course the rain and grey skies sometimes frustrate even the hardiest souls. So now be honest with yourself for a second : have you ever dreamt of spending the chillier months somewhere slightly warmer ? And if that answer is yes, then how many really have either the chance or the guts to do it ?
Whatever the answer, nobody could deny that spending the winter months somewhere as warm and as fish-filled as the Florida Keys is not sorely tempting.
51 year old Rodney Goodship is your typical fishing nut : we all know the story. Start fishing at a young age, move heavily into sea fishing when location and travel possibilities combine, and then look to fishing further afield as perhaps circumstances allow. But how come he now spends six months plus of the year living down in the Keys, with his own boat, and welcoming travelling Brits to come and stay and fish for some very accessible prices ?
Boats have for many years been a very serious part of Rodney’s life; coarse fishing the local ponds in his youth (with and without licenses, sometimes !!) first gave him the fishing bug, but when his family moved to the Brighton area, so he and his mates would row solid wooden clinker-built rowing boats a couple of miles offshore and fish for species such as bass and bream, plus the local piers and rivers gave good chances to chase further species.
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I was really interested to hear about many teenage holidays spent with various relations over in Norway. With this country now quite rightly attracting great publicity over their staggering cod fishing, Rodney has nothing but fond memories of boat fishing in various fjords for decent cod and coalfish. If only we had but a small percentage of Norway’s cod stocks over here, but that sadly is another story………
Working as a civil engineer eventually took him to the wilds of Scotland and now a chance really to indulge in his growing love for sea fishing. Whereas many of us anglers seem to have some kind of inbuilt desire to access the remotest parts of our coastline via good old leg power, Rodney decided that (quite sensibly I might add !!) boat fishing was going to give him the key to Scotland’s rugged west coast. Together with his wife Helen they then ran a restaurant near Stranraer for a few years and in his spare time he would take small guided trips for tope and other such species.
A few years ago they decided upon a holiday : a week in central Florida, and then of course, for the angler, a week down on the Florida Keys. They fell in love with the place. If you have been there then you will understand. If not, let me simply say that the Keys offer absolute world class fishing for a number of species, and with the stringent US conservation practises, the general feeling is that sport just gets better and better. How many fishing spots can boast that ? The Keys seems to me like a purpose built fishing haven, indeed the whole place seems to exist purely for recreational angling. And its dead easy to get there.
Rodney is a man who likes to catch fish, but for a while he was slightly puzzled by some of the local attitudes : make no mistake, some of the world’s greatest fishing guides work down on the Keys, but Rodney was after all the fishing, and not just what the guide wanted to do. He clicked onto the fact that there was masses of different species to catch, and that with a boat he could begin to access what he wanted to do : variety. By all means chase the big tarpon, permit, bones and sailfish, but there is masses more to do out there, especially when the “main” species might be having a few hours off feeding.
Rodney did begin to hire boats as he and Helen made various return trips, but when they came into a little money the decision was made to go the whole hog and invest in their own high-performance fishing boat. The fact that Helen was diagnosed with MS simply made their minds up even more : increased time spent in the warm climate of southern Florida does no end of good for Helen’s health. Rodney really now had the chance to start learning the local waters and soon began to catch a lot of different fish. They reckoned there was a business in offering UK anglers some great value US fishing.
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Rodney is incredibly easy going and not for one second would he stand there and lay claim to replacing the incredibly successful and skilful specialist guiding services for the primary species down there. Plenty of qualified skippers run out of the main Keys fishing destinations (Islamorada, Key Largo, Marathon, Key West etc..) and charge accordingly, but go and fish with Rodney and you can completely tailor-make the package to suit you and your mates. Its a kind of fishing holiday I really like : base what you want to do on what you can pay, and remain flexible to take advantage of all that is on offer. No hassle, no pressure, jut lots of fishing.
A lot of the fishing around the Keys is over extremely shallow and clear water, indeed it can be a little disconcerting to steam fifteen miles in one direction and still be able to get out and wade !! You just have got to get the way we fish out of your head and basically go native.
The Keys are perhaps the most consistent place in the world to chase large tarpon, generally from about mid April onwards for a few months, and they get really big and numerous. Everything about these fish is true : serious power, very skilled at throwing hooks, staggering to look at, and even more staggering to catch. Rodney likes to fish like the locals do : the best results tend to come from fishing livebaits on small floats around the road bridges, drifting or at anchor, often at night.
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If you want to go and troll for sailfish, by all means tell Rodney and he’ll gladly sort it out for you, but for me personally I simply had great fun chumming on the flats and catching whatever came in. Spanish mackerel, various sharks (they can grow very large), stingrays etc.. The beauty of Rodney’s operation is that you can choose what you want fish for, yet still remain entirely flexible.
An example : Rodney mentioned a wreck lying a few miles out into the Atlantic, in perhaps 30 metres of water (the shallower side is generally out into the Gulf). It had to be a wonderful contrast to go wrecking in shorts and t-shirts when at home we would have been dressed in every thermal garment going !! Out to catch some livebaits (vital for Keys fishing, usually easy to chum them in), dump them in the on board live-well, and then roar out at over twenty knots to the wreck.
6/0 hook, short wire trace, 4oz weight, 30lb braid mainline, drop the livebait to the bottom and start a gentle retrieve. Twenty turns from the bottom and some predator smashes into the hapless prey and slams the 12lb class Carbostick right over, but my drag is set too light and suddenly it all goes solid. Apparently this is what big amberjack do for a pastime !! We did catch a few smaller ones, we could just about control a few of them, and a couple of times horribly big barracuda followed the livebaits right up to the surface before turning away. Half an hour perhaps and we were out of bait, but it just goes to prove what a change of plans can bring about. I am told that the US anglers hardly ever fish the wreck……
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Rodney and Helen run the business as a basic B&B package, to include full use of the boat and airport transfers, and then you choose what you want to do and add it on accordingly (extra meals, guided fishing etc.). If you are seriously comfortable with handling a boat, by all means take the vessel out yourselves, but of course Rodney will happily come along and guide for you. He can present you with all the options for the fishing and then take it from there; its a unique kind of fishing holiday whereby you decide totally what you want to do. There is no 9 to 5 here : each day is yours to fish as hard as you like. Just enjoy that sun on your face and think of your mates back home in the middle of winter !!