The cudas love a pink or orange tube lure..there should be some small ones around the rock pile of hawks cay. A plain hook with a piece of shrimp does pretty good for the mangrove snappers. I have also caught them on a yozuri crystal minnow in the 5-6 inch length..but most of our fishing down there has been on bait..catch some pin fish and put one out on a float rig...everything down there eats them. Salted clam works great as bait for them..small piece on a small hook...we have also caught mangrove snappers on gulp shrimp....new rules...you are supposed to use circle hooks for bait fishing in florida bay but can still use J hook on the ocean side. there are a lot of fish and game people down there and there is a good chance of getting stopped.

 

Sabiki rigs over the years I have found that live bait is the real ticket around the bridges. If you are able to find and catch bait you will have no problem catching the fish. You don’t even need a boat just drop a chum bag off any of the bridges on the out going tide and the fish will come to you.

Good luck

 

This is all great news. I fished down their last year and loved how you always bring up different species (unlike our waters). I will most likely just buy the live bait to give myself a longer fishing time. Any good head boats down that way? I am planning on renting a yak as well.

 

surpising and random piece of information: when speaking to a biologist aboard a whale watch cruise (cape cod) she mentioned northern water had a greater biomass than southern waters (which includes the entire food chain) while southern waters have a greater biodiversity.

ok, carry on

 

Lures will catch the smaller fish but bait get the slammers.

 

There is one in Key Largo (mm105+/-) called the Gulfstream and the only other one I know of is on Marathon..the Marathon Lady..(mm 53).

 

I was down years ago and we would chum for ballyhoo and use sabiki rigs to catch them. The only problem is when you catch 5 or 6 at a time, they freak out and tangle the rig, so bring several with you. The only place we ever tried to catch the ballyhoo was while snorkeling in the ocean so I can't say for sure if you can catch them from the shore. We caught several kinds of snappers, etc and all were great eating. Chop the ballyhoo into chunks and your'll have a blast.

 

I'd also take some jigs, 1/4-3/4 oz. Tan, light green, white. Match the color to the bottom color, to match the crab shrimp of the area.

 

We've been fishing the Keys every year for about 15 years and I don't use too many lures inside the reef. I'll have a bomber for casting around the bridges for tarpon and a tube lure for barracudas. Jig heads for drifting bait deeper in the water column. The rest of my lures are for outside the reef. Mostly jetheads, feathers, Islanders, etc.... stuff to troll for dolphin. For the deeper wrecks, I bring diamond jigs and butterfly jigs in various weights. I also have a Stretch 30+ for grouper trolling the reef.

For anything between the bridges and the reef, swivels, hooks, egg sinkers and fluorocarbon leader in 20-50lbs. May have to go to 15lbs for day time snapper in clearter water.