Jump to content

Best times and destinations to catch these species

Rate this topic


nickd9283

Recommended Posts

I am lucky enough to afford the occasional vacation with a charter trip thrown in every few years but am not lucky enough to be able to afford multiple attempts at each destination in a lifetime. That said, I have a “wish list” for species to catch. Some of them I already know where is the best place and time to catch them, and I’ve already made progress on my list. Some of them involve only a few hours drive from where I live near Boston, and others involve flights and a few days stay.

if you only had 1-2 shots at the following species, where and what time time of year would you book a trip in the United States (please only list a non-us spot if it’s absolutely necessary as I won’t be able to afford more than 2 exotic destinations in a lifetime)

I’m not looking for times of year where the biggest are available to set records, I’m looking for times of year of abundance to maximize my chance at one. 

Amberjack
Mahi
Redfish
Snook
Tarpon
Kingfish
Giant Trevally

if it’s not on the list, I either already have a planned trip, it’s not on my list, or have already checked it off the list.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pretty much all of those can be caught in Florida, I know with tarpon the best time of year is like April through June. AJs, redfish, snook, and mahi are around all summer and into fall. Kingfish are a winter fish, September through November and then April may are the best months.

 

GT are a bit more expensive to target. They’re primarily Indian Ocean/western pacific fish. Lots of people go to Sudan or Oman, but if you don’t like traveling to different cultures you can go to Australia, New South Wales has excellent GT fishing, and even Japan has good GT opportunities. There are also some of the vacation islands like the Maldives or Seychelles that have good GT access. I believe they’re catchable all season long, but I think spring is best.

 

if you want to maximize bucket list fish in as few trips as possible is target south Florida or the keys around May or June, you should be able to catch nearly every fish on your list in one trip.

 

the kingfish would require a second trip, but Florida trips can be relatively inexpensive, especially if you have friends/family in the area for lodging

 

the GT trip will be a big splurge, either way it won’t be cheap. You can catch them from Madagascar to Australia and basically anywhere in between. I’m not sure where the cheapest areas there are, but I would probably pick Australia just because it will be relatively similar to the us food and language wise, pick somewhere between march and September 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

38 mins ago, EliasA said:

Pretty much all of those can be caught in Florida, I know with tarpon the best time of year is like April through June. AJs, redfish, snook, and mahi are around all summer and into fall. Kingfish are a winter fish, September through November and then April may are the best months.

 

Great info, thank you. Any favorite spots for best shots at the kingfish?

 

was thinking of a trip to Venice, LA for a combo of redfish inshore, and yellowfin tuna and amberjack offshore at the oil rigs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 mins ago, nickd9283 said:

Great info, thank you. Any favorite spots for best shots at the kingfish?

 

was thinking of a trip to Venice, LA for a combo of redfish inshore, and yellowfin tuna and amberjack offshore at the oil rigs.

they’re around year round offshore, but more nearshore. I know lots of people target them along the eastern coast, from like west palm beach to Miami. You can also catch them all around south florida and on the gulf side.

 

I’ve personally never caught one or even fished for them, but I remember a saltwater sportsman article about catching them running out of Hillsboro inlet in November.

 

and that Venice trip sounds sweet, I’ve been planning a LA redfish fly trip for a few years but it keeps not working out lol, add in rig yellowfin on poppers and that sounds like a killer trip

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to register here in order to participate.

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


×
×
  • Create New...