By Rob Harris

No doubt about it, August in the Keys can be HOT. Sometimes it can be windy too, but that’s not enough to keep us at the dock! This month may be the right time to take that long planned trip to the Dry Tortugas. Typically, August has some of the calmest water we get all year. Lately I’ve seen smaller boats by the dozens making the trip in groups with the belief of “safety in numbers”.

A standard August trip “down west” will include some offshore trolling, deep-dropping, snapper fishing the reef and a trip to see Ft Jefferson. It’s an easy 2-day trip as long as you have the right weather and plan accordingly. Weather aside, your plans should include filing a “Float Plan” with someone ashore just in case you are delayed or have problems. A must have item is ice. I’ve never heard anyone return to Key West and tell me they took too much ice. Try and pre-freeze as much of your food/drinks as you can and keep them separated from your ice storage. In the heat of the day, opening and closing the cooler will decimate your ice supply, so limit the trips to the cooler. It will also help if you label the coolers with the contents so that you’re not opening them to look for items that aren’t in them.

Double-check your safety equipment. Bandages, gauze, and any ointments should be easily accessible and the storage bin well known to all hands. This goes the same for life jackets, flares, hand-held radios and other emergency equipment. While it can be nice at times to be the one with all the answers, keep in mind the other people on the boat may need those items to save you!

Dolphin, Tuna and Wahoo are what we mainly target on the ride out, so it’s good to have trolling supplies aboard for the trip West. Heading out of the Main Ship Channel in front of Key West we’ll head Southwest looking to get in front of any passing pelagic species. Once in the 500-850’ depths, we start watching the bottom for likely deep-dropping areas. Once we mark good bottom that is holding fish, in comes the spread and out go the electric reels. Light current this time of year makes for easy drifting and fast catching! When catching Snowy Grouper and Tilefish, keep in mind that they will count in your 3 grouper (per person) aggregate bag limit. Once you’ve got dinner in the box you can stow your electrics and put the spread back out and continue west.

I plan on crossing back over the reef around “Tail-End Buoy” which gives me the option of anchoring on the “Banana Bar” or moving inside of “Moosehead” for some snapper fishing and a chance to check reef conditions before I continue West. It can be helpful to check current and visibility conditions along the way in case you get down West and have too much current for bottom fishing, or not enough visibility for diving. Should that happen, you’ll know exactly where to find more favorable conditions. Keep a close eye on how many of which species of fish are hitting the box as you go. Even though you’ll be out there for multiple days, you can only have a 1-day limit aboard under recreational rules.

Now that you’ve spent the day transiting and catching, it’s time to make the final run to your anchorage. I’ve got two different approaches for this part of the plan: 1. Anchor at the Fort before dark and get set-up for the night while there’s still light, or 2. Anchor in a large, deep area that allows anglers to fish at-will through the night. Both have their own merits and will be dictated by the size boat and desires of the crew. I have had anglers that prefer bottom fishing in the cool of the night over the heat of the day, so anchoring away from the Fort offers them that. I always find myself doing a double-check of the fish box in the morning, as some anglers have limited out the boat without realizing it.

I will normally have 3-4 cases of chum, 4-6 dozen ballyhoo, 10lbs of Majua, 15lbs of Squid and 10lbs of Threadfin Herring aboard for 2 days (and 1 night) of fishing. Along the way we always seem to pick-up fresh Bonita and Mackerel to use as cut-bait. I’ll also take as many live pinfish as my bait well will handle with plans of adding a few 12-16” Yellowtails as Grouper bait. I don’t mind bringing bait home, but I don’t want to run out of what the fish want while I’m out there!

Should you decide to anchor at Garden Key, plan on having other boats around you. Seldom have I found myself the only boat there and more often than not I awake to find more boats than when I went to sleep. It’s a small, sandy anchorage in most places but can be a nice experience when all goes well. Most of the squalls I’ve encountered at the Fort this time of year have come from the East-Southeast. Yes, you are allowed to fish at the Fort and there are some Beastly-sized Goliaths living in and around the anchorage. Check the NMFS website for current information on where you can fish within the Dry Tortugas Ecological Reserve.

Now you’ve been there and done that, time to return to Key West. First thing I check is the fish box. Does it have enough ice for the return? Better yet, does it have enough fish! If the answer is “yes” to enough ice, but “no” to enough fish, you have enough information from the day before to decide what to target and where the best conditions are to target them. I always try and end my Fort trip trolling to Key West. Trolling provides anglers that may have stayed up for the night bite a chance to get some rest as we continue putting a few more fish in the box. Getting home with a rested crew always makes for easier dockside workers. Given my preference, I like to arrive back at the dock about 5:00pm. This keeps us away from the heat of the day and I can always turn the hose on myself while I wash the boat or clean fish.

As we all know, it’s nice to have a cool, refreshing beverage dockside while watching a classic Keys sunset with close friends and family at the end of every fishing trip.

Catch’em Up!

Capt Rob Harris of Got TA Go Charters. He can be reached at (305) 587-9228 or E-Mail: rw_harris@msn.com