Need some advice from the Florida boaters. My wife and I and another couple are heading to Florida in April for a cruise. We are flying in a day early and my buddy and I want to do some deep sea fishing. We are flying down in his plane, so we can go pretty much anywhere that has a small airport nearby. Any suggestions?

Islamorada

I have done a few fishing trips out of Key West and I have to say, I have had more fun fishing the flats with a good guide in a center console then going for a couple "monsters" deep sea. One trip in particular we went out about 10-15 miles west into a huge area of flats. We drifted along this natural channel with light tackle pulling in all kinds of fish 12-24" in size. We also had two deep sea rigs out the back. We caught (2)5-6' Black Tip Shark, (2) 5' Spinner Shark, and a 7' Bull Shark.
All in all we landed a total of 57 fish (23 different species). Best fishing trip I ever had. My other time out on the flats we caught 20+ fish and a few small sharks.
My deep sea trips, I personally got skunked twice and caught a small marlin on a third trip. The only salvation on one of the skunk trips, we caught some grouper on the way in when we stopped at a wreck.

We went Tarpon fishing in early Oct out of Bud & Mary's in Islamorada. We slayed them on light tackle. Although it is getting really hard to catch Bonefish, it is still possible with the same boat and guide. Tarpon fishing is a good balance between in-shore/flats fishing and the ability to catch and release something big. If you are interested, send me an e-mail and I will give you the info on the guide we use.
Ben