Fishing Key West In February – Tales Of Cold Cudas And Jacks

What’s it like to fish during one of Key West’s coldest February’s ever? Captain Craig Eubank of the Mr. Z tells the fishing tales of the last week:

With the unusual cold fronts this year, the water temperature drop in the Gulf of Mexico has made the birds out of the barracudas … snowbirds, that is.

The big ‘Cudas that usually live on the WWII wrecks and big shoals move further South into the Atlantic Ocean and congregate on the reefs and wrecks. They’re definitely hungry after that long swim, and lucky for them, we have plenty of baitfish waiting!

How do we find ‘em? We look for “showering” Ballyhoo — that’s the baitfish moving as one pack, “tailwalking” across the water to avoid a predator. It looks as though you just turned on the sprinkler in the backyard.

Some days we run ‘em twice.

Our early morning anglers last Friday did show up pretty much on time, and after closing down the bars on their Duval Crawl at 4 am, that was no small feat!  We found pretty rough conditions with green water and a bitter wind out of the North – bitter for Key West, that is. It’s still tropical here – the air temp never dips below 41. No bluewater fish, but we hooked out share of Cero, Spanish, and King Mackerel – and one lucky angler locked onto a 40 pound hammerjack and took the overall largest fish award.

The afternoon went a bit more smoothly.  Craig Cope, and intended Shanti were chartered the Mr. Z for and afternoon of wreck fishing.  Craig’s nephew , seven year old Brandon Cope, caught the biggest fish of his life.  On a Shimano high speed 30 pound reel packed with light braided line, he worked for more than 20 minutes, following Capt. Steve’s instructions to keep the braid tight,  and finally landing about a 40 pound Hammerjack in the boat for a great picture.  The fish was off-gassed, releasing the air in its’ bladder, revived at the side of the boat, and released unharmed to fight another day!

Catching the sailfish is the big thrill. This sail certainly made Tonya’s day:

The Mr. Z is a 46′ Bertram sportfishing yacht docked at the A&B Marina in Historic Key West Bight.

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