- Traveling Angler Fishing Reports

The word from Captain John from Grey Dolphin charters was of his looking forward to getting after some early season action. The skipper will begin sailing out of Sesuit Harbor for winter flounder which have made a good showing in this area over the past few seasons. The winter flounder in that area usually become more active around the first week of May and the skipper plans to hit the water in his comfortable 31-foot Downeaster by May third. Those flounder usually keep biting well into June. Give him a call for details on how to get aboard for some early season action.

It’s getting close to flounder time as Captain Bob of Tigger Two gets ready for yet another season on Cape Cod waters.  Bob is a Cape Codder who will begin his season in pursuit of winter Flounder, a species many of our newer readers have never chased or caught. Those blackbacks are just beginning to stir at this time of year and the bite improves by the first of May and continues well into the summer. This is your chance. Give the skipper a call for details.

New to our traveling angler reports is Ultimate Gamble out of the Rhode Island area. Captain Dan Smith runs a 21-foot Duke Center Console for up to 4 anglers. He offers 4, 6 and 8 hour charters for a variety of different seasonal species in the area. To find out more information or book a charter call him at (774) 613-1777 or visit his website at ultimategamblecharters.com

It’s been awhile since I was able to slip away to Florida for any extended period of time, so chalk up the continued COVID cancellations of local events back at home as one of the few flecks of silver in an otherwise worthless lining of clouds. My wife and I joined three other couples for a week in Marathon in mid-January, but just four of us headed up to Islamorada for a charter aboard Bruce Anderson’s Capt. Easy Charters who has been a regular contact of mine here for many years. A former Long Islander now running out of IslaMarina at the base of Snake Creek Bridge, Capt. Bruce has been fishing the Islamorada area for over 25 years, but it’s pretty nice to be able to fish with a Keys local who knows that a “chicken rig” for snapper fishing in 300 feet of water is pretty much identical to a hi-lo rig for black sea bass! Plenty of variety on our trip, with bonito (false albacore), red snapper and silky sharks released, and snapper (vermillion, mutton and lane) and almaco jack brought home to our rental home for a feast. Grouper opens later this spring on May 1, and mahi action around Islamorada heats up soon after. Make bait to start the day, deep drop a few snapper in the morning then liveline cigar minnows for kingfish, sailfish, blackfin and other larger game in the afternoon. Heading into the lower Keys, I spoke to New Jersey transplant Capt. Jamie on January 22; he runs Flying Fish Charters out of Key West where he has one boat that hits the offshore grounds and another back country boat. “There’s been tarpon and permit around when it’s warmer, but it’s mainly cuda fishing when it’s colder for us,” Capt. Jamie said, reporting that he’s been primarily running his skiff for much of January. “Prime time is right around the corner, we just gotta get through a few more cold fronts,” he told me.