This Week In Key West Fishing

Dolphin Photo of the week. My anglers with two of the three dolphin they caught on the reef with me in less than 30ft of water.
Dolphin

Photo of the week. My anglers with two of the three dolphin they caught on the reef with me in less than 30ft of water.

Saturday December 3rd 2016 – Early December is typically a slow time for all of here fishing Key West. A great time to ramp up and get ready for season using the Christmas week as our dry run for the big time and shake out all the knots. This week we brought in some new fishing reels  from Daiwa. We invested in some of the new Saltist Reels. We loved the old ones they sure held up well. Great stuff always seems to keep coming from the Daiwa camp. New boat coming on line as well. Capt. Nick “Hollywood” is getting a replacement for his 24 bay boat that comes with a bathroom. Last year he did WORK in that sled, I can only image what next year will be like. I am excited. His boat should be on line here in a week. Capt. Brian “Goose” is going to be enjoying his new – ish Yellowfin. this week he puts the final touches on in a coat of wax on his 2010 Yellowfin bay boat and back in service with all new rigging and updated electronics from GARMIN and Mercury Marine, we also updated his electrical system to the new C Zone. He is pretty stoked with a revamped office, honestly its some of my best re fab work. We are always updating. A shout out to Capt. Tommy “Jester” and his wife Pam for closing on their piece of the rock here in the Florida Keys buying a house.

December has been pretty busy so far and it looks like Christmas week is going to be hectic. I am expecting the weather to be one of those balmy Key West Christmases with temps in the high 70s. This will make for a great week of fishing. More on that as we get closer.

Lately we have been having some great fishing here off the docks at Sunset Marina where we keep the fleet of Dream Catcher Charters. Our backcountry fishing is lit up well right now with good water temps and some great high volume fishing charters that have shown our clients some great days on the water. Capt. John says that on his boat the big jacks are the hard hitters and pullers of the week. We have also had some great stories coming from our shark fishing charters as well. Everyone knows that the backcountry fishing charters rule the month of December here in Key West.

Lets not leave out the Key West flats fishing. Capt. Hugh and Capt. Nick are doing some great work on the flats with the last few days of the warmer waters here in Key West. Hugh and his anglers got a nice sized bonefish and Nick got into some baby tarpon during a warming trend. The Permit will stay strong through the winter but we will lose our bonefishing till late spring and summer this week. See my Tarpon fishing report for that.

I had a chance to go fishing on the reef this week and really crushed some nice fish over a few trips with some clients. Yellowtail snappers, grouper and some nice sized dolphin were all part of the box and some nice dinners to follow. All on artificial and less than 35 ft of water. Goes to prove you never know what will come across the reef looking for a snack. The reef this time of the year can be so different from day to day depending on the winds. I expect the reef fishing to stay real good through the month.

On the Key West deep sea fishing we have had blackfin tunas, dolphin and sailfish. The sailfish have been running a little small lately with the larger fish being 35-50 lbs. Typical this time of the year and really fun on light tackle. The dolphin are no great surprise but we are hearing the deep sea fishing fleet talking about the dolphin fishing this month being better than all of the summer this year in 16′. Christmas week looks pretty good for our Key West deep sea fishing fleet as the bookings roll in.

Don’t forget.. Coming up. Our new 36 ft Yellowfin center console will be here and ready to roll out to the Key West reef fishing and beyond to the Dry Tortugas. We will be offering Reef fishing, tuna trips to the shrimp boats, trolling the deep sea, deep dropping for sword fish and trips out to the Dry Tortugas.

Everyone have an awesome week.. 
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About Capt. Steven Lamp
Dr Catcher Is - Capt. Steven Lamp - Owner of Dream Catcher Charters is a veteran Key West fishing guide for flats fishing, deep sea fishing, wrecks and reef fishing, and fly fishing. An expert waterman and licensed captain since 1986. A Veteran of the United States Coast Guard Heavy Weather Search and Rescue, I.G.F.A. Certified Captain and Standing regional board member of The Florida Fishing Guides Association