Key Largo is a great place to visit, and it’s a particularly great place to fish. While there are awesome charters, there are even better fishing spots that are accessible by private boat, by kayak, or even on foot.
Here are some of our favorite Key Largo fishing spots, so you can choose the one best for you.
Adams Cut Bridge
Adams Cut, also known as the Marvin D. Adams Waterway, is easily accessible on foot. It is a great place to fish for snapper and snook, as well as for tarpon. Tarpon tend to linger around bridges during the March/April run. For snook fishing, you can fish from summer through fall, with a recommendation to free-line a live pilchard or finger mullet.
The best time to fish Adams Cut Bridge is at night, when these large fish are closer to the surface. There are also other good spots along Adams Cut, especially for snook.
Tavernier Creek
This is a great place for kayak fishing (and just for kayaking). Tavernier Creek is lined with mangroves and accesses a shallow saltwater lagoon. The mangroves make it another good place for tough to catch, but delicious, snook. As the temperature drops, the fishing switches to redfish in the fall, or gag grouper in the spring. It’s also a good place to hunt for Florida’s small trout. Look for all of these fish close to the mangroves…you might hook a mangrove every now and then, but that’s part of the game.
It’s also a beautiful place to hang out with a line, almost as good as going into the Everglades.
Buttonwood Sound
If you have access to a boat (or are doing a charter), Buttonwood Sound is a great place for open water fishing…and you can launch right from Key Largo itself. You can catch spotted seatrout here, a local delicacy. It’s also a great place for red snapper and tarpon (during April/May).
Head further out and you may be able to snag a mahi mahi for dinner. They are beautiful to look at, too, but they don’t go down without a fight. A Buttonwood Sound trip is a great way to stock up on very tasty fish.
Florida Bay
South and west of the keys, Florida Bay falls within the Everglades National Park and is just off Panhandle Key. This is an ocean flat area and holds juvenile tarpon, permit, and bonefish. This is called the “flats slam” if you can get all three of them in one day. Permits are particularly elusive, making this a real angler’s challenge.
Florida Bay is part of an entire network of flats and shallows and keys that are worth spending time exploring and appreciating.
John Pennekamp State Park
John Pennekamp State Park is also called John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, and is the nation’s first undersea park. It’s popular with divers, snorkelers, and kayakers. Despite its status, fishing is permitted in select areas. You can fish from shore or bring a boat, and you can rent a kayak if you need one.
Lots of fish can be found here. The reef makes it a good place for tarpon and grouper, and you can also find mangrove snappers and schoolmaster snappers here. It’s even a place where you can fish for nurse shark.
If you are visiting Key Largo, you are visiting some of the best fishing in the world…and fishing that can easily be combined with enjoying Florida’s weather and scenery. There are several popular local charters, but there are many more ways to strike out on your own, whether you are fishing from the shore, from a kayak, or renting a boat. All of these great fishing locations, and many more, are easily accessible from our Key Largo vacation rentals. Contact Playa Largo Ocean Residences to find out more or make your booking today.
Other sources:
https://goodkarmasportfishing.com/florida-keys-bridge-fishing-spots/
Image Credit: Mark Winfrey / Shutterstock
