Home Forums Fishing Saltwater Seven Mile Bridge

Anyone know what is being caught around 7 mile bridge in the Keys? I suspect Mahi-Mahi.

Thanks

I doubt there are any dolphin around the bridge. You need to head south about 20 miles out to sea (10 miles off Sombrero light) to about the 600ft depth and look for birds and weedlines. You can catch things like small grouper, hogfish, and some tarpon and sheepshead under the bridge at times, but the current is fierce and you have to fish in between the tides (late outgoing, slack, and early incoming.) Beautiful area, Marathon, wish I was there.

No dolphin{mahi} at the 7 mile bridge. Sheephead,trigger fish, snapper.

Tarpon I suspect right now too.

Thanks All!

David

The better fishing is some 30 miles plus off Key West! I just hope the oil doesn't get that far out anytime soon, NEVER would be great!

i moved from the keys about a year ago after living near marathon for about 10 years. for about the last 5 of those years i chartered my boat out of the hawks kay resort on duck key.
all the keys bridges provide good fishing. many have special fishing lanes that extend for long distances. no license is required for bridge fishing. it would be a rare event to catch a dolphin or mahi mahi from a bridge. some of the best tarpon fishing in the keys is around the bridges. long key, seven mile, and bahia honda being among the best. early spring till about mid june is the best time for them. dolphin fishing is also best in spring and early summer. the hot months of summer are usually the worst fishing except at night. the winter months are prime sailfish months as they are driven south due to cooler water further north. the wind can blow hard for weeks on end during winter in the keys. many fishing vacations have been ruined because of that.if i had to pick a time to fish the keys it would be the month of may.
great dolphin fishing can be had just beyond the reef one day, and 20 miles out the next day. the most popular reef fish are the snappers with the yellowtail being most prevelant followed by the mangrove or grey snapper. hog snapper numbers have diminished considerably. grouper numbers are still fairly good but keepers are getting harder to get. good numbers of king, cero, and spanish mackeral are present primarily in cooler months.
lots of good fishing oppurtunity still exist in the keys.
some of the best captains anywhere are there to help you catch them.

As others said no Mahi at the 7 mile bridge. Tarpon, Permit, Jacks, Sharks or yellowtail. If you want to chase Dolphin look for an off shore charter. I've fished out of Bud N Mary's in Islamorada many times.
If you go 20-30 miles out of Islamorada you should be able to try for black fin tuna on the hump but you certainly don't need to go nearly that far for Snapper, grouper or Dolphin.
I'm not a big fan of fishing out of Key West unless you have no other choice. I try to limit my exposure in that pool.

A friend showed me this web site the other day. He has a windows based system and got an excellent live feed. I have a mac computer and all I get is stills (cause I`m too dumb to download what ever it is a mac needs to get the live streaming feature)
Anyway, if you Google Teens4oceans you can get amazing live video from a camera they have in 20 feet of water under the Bahia Honda bridge in the Keys. On tuesday there were a bunch of Tarpon and some Snook milling around there along with Hogfish and Snappers. I suppose the stage of the tide would be a factor re: whats there and water clarity but , it was better entertainment ,for me, than the live feed from the cam in front of Sloppy Joe`s on Duval Street.

Bob

PS not a Dolphin in the bunch

never say never when fishing the keys. yes it would be very unlikly to catch a mahi mahi from under a bridge, but dont bet against it. about 3 years ago a swordfish of all things was caught on the bay side of rt.1 in islamarada. caught on a flats boat.
fact is there are excellant guides throughout the keys.
more attention is given to key west as thats where most people head when visiting there.
after seeing all the freak shows key west has to offer, many serious visitors look at the middle keys and islamarada and marathon for future visits.

You have better odds of winning the lottery next week than catching mahi by the bridge. I wouldn't suggest taking an offshore charter for flats fish nor would I suggest a inshore or flats charter for off shore species.
Still odd things happen. I've seen a sunfish that weighed several hundred pounds with ease just off shore in this area.
I do completely agree with the suggestion for the middle Keys. Either head out of Islamorada or Marathon. There are a lot of good guys although the best book well in advance. The last time I spoke to Jose Wejebe he was booked a year+ in advance.
If you head out of Marathon I can suggest Diego Cordova. I've fished with Diego several times. I walked right off the front of his boat fly fishing for bones several years ago. LOL
Lots of good times.
I'm not sure if Alan Starr is still running the Rell Quick III out of Bud N Mary's but he's a helluva good guy for offshore charters. For any of you that remember the book or the movie "The Perfect Storm" IIR Alan used to work on the Andrea Gail years before the book or the movie and has been around the block a time or two. However If you have tender feeelings or can't curse like a sailer you might be better off with one of the more touristy boat selections though.

http://www.floridakeysflats.com/