Warm Keys waters keep late-summer action rolling into fall

What's next

Tides split across the two Keys stations tracked this morning: station 8724580 shows a low near 2:23 a.m. EDT building to a high around 9:01 a.m. EDT, while station 8723970 runs on the opposite phase, with a high near 2:23 a.m. EDT easing to a low by 5:15 a.m. EDT. That gives a moving tide through sunrise on either side of the island chain, generally the window local captains favor for the first push of the day.

The Waxing Gibbous moon is building toward full over the next week, typically the stretch when Keys guides plan around stronger dawn and nighttime current. With water still sitting in the mid-to-upper 80s, expect the pattern ALL IN Key West and Bud n' Mary's describe to hold through the weekend before any real cool-down shows up this far south.

Context

Late September in the Florida Keys sits at the tail end of the summer pattern, ahead of the fall transition that typically brings cooling water and shifting bait movement further up the peninsula. Water in the mid-to-upper 80s is normal for this point in the calendar and matches what the shops and charters above describe as an extended stretch of stable, productive conditions. That shift toward fall usually accelerates through October as nights cool and water temperatures trend down.