Second Mahi Season Arrives in the Florida Keys

What's biting

What's next

With no fresh buoy or gauge data feeding this report, the read for the next two to three days leans on seasonal pattern rather than live instrumentation — anglers should pull a current NOAA marine forecast for the Keys before planning an offshore run, especially for Gulf Stream trips chasing mahi.

The headline opportunity is the second mahi push. Saltwater Sportsman's guidance is that this fall run typically gets going around mid-September, which lines up with where the calendar sits right now, so trolling the color changes and weed lines along the Gulf Stream edge is the move to watch over the next couple of weeks. Boats that worked the spring mahi run should expect a similar pattern to build, just with less crowded water once the tourist traffic thins.

Inshore, the snapper bite that ALL IN Key West called 'as good as I've seen in 16 years' during the May-June-July stretch is the bar the fishery has been measured against this year. Yellowtail and mutton snapper both fed heavily around the full moon, and moon phase is worth watching: the current cycle is a waning crescent moving toward new moon, which usually means calmer tidal flow than the spring-tide full-moon bite that lit up the reef earlier this summer. Expect steadier but less explosive snapper action on the patch reefs and edges through this lunar window, picking back up as the moon builds toward its next full phase.

On the bridges and flats, Bud n' Mary's noted tarpon as a reliable June-July target; that bite typically tapers through late summer into fall as fish move off the bridges, so anglers chasing tarpon specifically should treat any remaining shots as opportunistic rather than a sure thing right now. Sailfish, which ALL IN Key West reported showing up unusually early back in March on strong Gulfstream currents, are worth keeping an eye on again as fall current patterns start to set up — that's typically when the Keys sail bite begins building toward its winter peak.

Weekend planning should center on checking wind and sea-state forecasts directly, since this cycle carries no live buoy readings to lean on for planning boat days.

Context

For the Florida Keys flats-and-offshore fishery, early-to-mid September sits right at the seasonal handoff: the red-hot summer snapper bite anglers reported through June and July (ALL IN Key West called it among the best in 16 years fishing Key West) is winding down, while the second mahi run Saltwater Sportsman describes is just getting started. That's a normal, on-schedule pattern for this region rather than an early or late shift — the Keys typically see a lull between the summer inshore/reef bite and the fall pelagic push before winter sailfish season builds.

Biologically, this window also overlaps with permit spawning aggregations in the Keys, which Florida Sea Grant notes can host over a thousand fish at a time on nearshore structure — a reminder that some Keys gamefish are in active reproductive periods this time of year, which is worth factoring into harvest decisions even where not required by regulation.

On the regulatory side, CCA Florida has been tracking ongoing changes to South Atlantic red snapper season management (state-led exempted fishing permits and related litigation), which affects planning for anglers targeting that species offshore of the Keys — check current state and federal regulations before targeting or harvesting red snapper, as season status has been actively in flux this year.

Beyond the intel gathered here, there's no live buoy or gauge history available for this cycle to compare current water conditions against a multi-year baseline, so this note is grounded in reported angler activity and known seasonal timing rather than measured trend data.