Key West Fishing & World Sailfish Championship Results

KEY WEST – Spring fishing in the Florida Keys is still going strong this week. Shallow water fishing to deep sea fishing has seen a flourish of activity and a wide variety of fish.

The 2006 World Sailfish Championship brought 116 teams from throughout the South East to Key West for three days of world-class sailfishing. Although the bite was not as hot as in 2005, several teams managed to release multiple fish each day. In the end Vitamin Sea Too, from Pompano Beach, FL reigned as the winner of the 2006 tournament and walked away with the $100,000 check.

A total of 394 sailfish were caught and released during this years three day tournament. Vitamin Sea Too hung onto the lead releasing six sails the first day, six sails the second, and only two on the third. It was enough to stay ahead of Sea Wolf, who took second place with 12 fish released. Counter Culture came in third place, also with 12 fish released.

Vitamin Sea Too and most of the other tournament participants were fishing west of Key West from the end of the bar all the way to the tail end buoy near Rebecca Shoal. “It was tough,” replied Captain Brice Barr on the Double Down out of Key West. Barr fished to the West for the first two days. He mentioned that they saw quite a few fish and each day they hooked up several times. The third day of fishing left the fleet of participants split, some went way east while the rest stuck to the original plan and headed west once again.

There is certainly plenty of fish in the sea and actively biting this week. Offshore fishing took a positive turn just after the Sailfish Tournament ended. Winds decreased and the 5 to 10 mph wind out of the south east brought the mahi-mahi and wahoo in to our area. Several large dolphin were caught this week in the 30- pound range along with some smaller ones in the 10- pound range. Needless to say there is really no shortage of mahi-mahi action this time of year and it will last into the summer months.

Captain Tom Ault on the Time Out at A&B Marina reported some unusually large wahoo they caught last week on a full day charter. Ault was trolling in an area called the Ups and Downs in 750 feet where he landed a 33- and 43- pound wahoo. Ault landed several mahi-mahi the same trip.

Permit fishing near Western Dry Rocks, Vestal Shoal and some of the smaller wrecks around the Marquesas has still been decent this week. Captain Andrea Paulson joined us for an afternoon out on the reef where we sight casted to a large school of permit. Paulson and I doubled up on our first casts into the school. One was on a live shrimp, the other on a live crab and small jig. We landed 5 permit that day and lost a few others.

Blackfin tuna fishing off the Gulf shrimp boats has been hot this week. Several boats including Captain Steve Rodger on Spear One out of Murray Marina had a nice catch of tuna in the 30- pound range. Tunas that hang out below the shrimp boats as they cull their catch are generally larger than the ones we catch in the winter in the Atlantic.

On the flats there has been nothing but great action for tarpon. From Big Pine to the Marquesas there are plenty of large tarpon following their migratory path up the coast of Florida. There were a few days this week where the fishing slowed down a bit. It just seemed to be that one group of tarpon moved out while another group moved in a few days later to take their place.
Night tarpon fishing has been extremely productive. Tarpon enjoy slurping shrimp off the surface during the fuller moon phase and it is a terrific time to fish for them with live bait, sinking plug or even a dark colored fly. Black and purple and the traditional black death work great for night time tarpon fishing.