Fishing the Gulf Towers and Shrimp Boats

Shrimp Boats and Towers?

North and north west of Key West the Department of Defense has a handful of communication towers.  Well those towers happen to be great structure to hold fish and to fish.  Most of the fish you will catch around the towers are several species of snapper, grouper, jacks, mackerel, cobia, barracudas,  permit and a few other species.  Even though the fishing on the towers is good, it is normally a second choice or back up plan when fishing way out in the Gulf off Key West.

The main attraction to this area of the Gulf of Mexico are the shrimp boats.  The actual shrimp trawling is done at night while the sun is not out.  When the sun comes up the shrimpers pull in the nets from the last drag and anchor up for the day.  While they are anchored they will separate the shrimp from all the other fish they caught in the net or the “shrimp trash”.  When they start to shovel the shrimp trash over the side of the boat the fish go crazy!!!

We normally leave the dock early and make the long run out to the area they have been most recently or find them on the radar.  We will pull up right behind a shrimp boat that is still seperating out their last drag and trade them some supplies for some baskets of shrimp trash, mostly beer.  Slowly drift away from the boat while throwing scoops of shrimp trash in the water and the fish will be blowing up on the surface all around you.  It is an incredible site to see and some of the easiest fishing ever.  You can catch blackfin tuna, bonito, king mackerel, cobia, sharks and a few .

The best boat for this trip is a large center console boat.  You need a fast boat for the long run out and you will most likely fish behind a few shrimp boats to figure out which one is holding the most fish.  This is a full day trip and the cost is higher than a normal full day to to the amount of fuel needed to make the run.