By Geoff W. Colmes
Bonefish are found in most shallow tropical and subtropical waters, where they inhabit tidal flats and coastal passes. Bonefish are essentially schooling fish: smaller bonefish can be seen in large schools on the flats; while, larger ones tend to be more solitary and form smaller schools or groups.
Our South Florida bonefish stock supports an economically important recreational fishery, renowned worldwide for its excellent bonefishing opportunities. In terms of outstanding catches, 16 of the 23 standing world records in the saltwater flyrod and saltwater line class categories were taken from the waters of the Florida Keys.In the Florida Keys.
Until recently it was thought that there was only one species of shallow water bonefish, Albula Vulpes. In 2001, however, genetics were used to identify a second species, called Albula species B or Albula Garcia. So far research shows that most bonefish caught by recreational anglers are now Albula Garcia, furthermore some tagged Albula Garcia from the Keys have been caught in the Bahamas. Research is ongoing to make sure this is true. This is important research to oganizations such as TarBone - it is important to know which species is/are in our fishery in order to have effective management.
Best Time
Ask any Keys fishing guide or seasoned angler and you will get lots of opinions... most are probably correct. Bonefish are available throughout the Florida Keys literally year round... but can be weather dependent in the late Fall and Winter during and after "extreme" drops in water temperature. Fall is notorious for BIG fish with Spring and Summer know for numbers of fish.
