Dry Tortugas Fishing Report

We ran a 48 hour Dry Tortugas Fishing Trip last week on THATS RIGHT, and were all pleased with the success. Before leaving, we loaded the boat with ice, food, and a livewell full of live shrimp, and pin fish, as well as a cooler full of fresh ballyhoo and speedos. The action started about 6 miles off the marquesas, when we anchored up in about 70 feet of water on a nice rocky bottom. A little chum and a little jigging with a double hook ballyhoo rig, brought us some nice red groupers in the 10lb range. We noticed some yellow-tails being marked on the sounder, so we started throwing out 1/4 oz jigs tipped with shrimp, and had a great catch of snappers going 2-4lbs. It was late afternoon when we started fishing so on a hunch we picked up and moved in tighter to the beach for the night, settling in on a nice patch in about 65 feet of water. Earlier in the day we had pulled along-side a shrimp boat and got a big bag of fresh shrimp, which we feasted on for dinner. At first the fishing was a little slow that night, but eventually turned on. The trick seemed to be turning off the spreader lights, as the big yellow tails up to 6lbs along showed up, along with amberjacks, mangrove snappers, groupers, and a real nice mutton snapper.

The next morning we made a nice breakfast and decided to try some deeper water wreck and ledge fishing. We drifted the ledges and wrecks in 160 to 200 feet, with decent results but felt that anchoring would led to a better catch of the larger black grouper and mutton snapper. Later that day we dropped the hook inside around 65ft on another nice piece of rocky bottom. This turned out to be the ticket as we jigged and live baiting big red groupers and flag yellow tails. The water was so clear we were watching the groupers chase the tails around. Later on we explored a little all the way around the Tortugas Bank, before settling in for the night near Rebecca Shoal. We only fished a little that night, adding some nice 5lb mangroves and another big mutton. In the morning, we again had breakfast, then began the 38 mile run back to Key West. Florida Fishing regulations have set criteria allowing for the multiple day bag limits on various species, so we were able to come home with full coolers. Our primary Yellowtail set-up was a Penn 560 Slammer reel on a 7' Penn 15-25 pound rod. We used Penn 950's on 30-50 pound rated rods for some of the larger mutton and red-grouper fishing. Penn 16's loaded with 80# suffix braid were the ticket when dropping in the deeper water.