When a coast, a type of water, and a fish actually line up. If you elected Texas on the list, this page opens on Texas — Seychelles stays off the board until you ask for it. Filter by region, method or habitat, and species. The year bar is peak versus present. Limits cite TPWD and FWC — verify before you keep one.
Yucatan is bones and sail. Baja is rooster and dorado. Neither is Texas.
Ascension Bay / Sian Ka’an is the Caribbean flat — Punta Allen, permit and bones, biosphere rules, a modeled tide. Isla Mujeres is the other Yucatan desk: winter sailfish on the current, summer mahi, a troll-and-kite day. Cross the country and you are in another fishery. East Cape is rooster in the wash and Gordo Banks when the blue water is in. La Paz is Espíritu Santo and El Bajo. CONAPESCA license. No NOAA gauge. Roosterfish does not live in the Gulf of Mexico.
June. Heat. Ascension early. Mujeres mahi. East Cape is a dawn rooster and a midday bank.
Type
Skiff
Pole the skinny, run the guts. A skiff loses a flat at dead low and loses the fish when you run across the bank they are using. Islamorada and Biscayne are poling theaters with boat traffic as a species. Flamingo is a different boat — backcountry, color, wind. Venice is a third — river-marsh, not a sight flat. Texas Rockport and Baffin are the same idea in grass and rock. Idle before you think you should.
Keys migratory peak Apr–May. Boca Grande Pass is the spring stack. Jupiter inlet and beach. Texas beach/passes mid-summer. Venice south passes in the heat. Bahamas: resident fish in bights Apr–Oct.
Fly. 10–12 wt. Cockroach, toad, or baitfish. Bow to the king on the jump. 40–60 lb shock.
Spin. Live crab or large swimbaits at passes. Texas beachfront July–early fall is a bay-boat game, not the skinny skiff.
Absent in Texas. Keys: big, few, educated. Bahamas: the capital — winter singles, summer schools of 3–5 lb fish. Puerto Rico: east islands more than San Juan. Seychelles: Alphonse and Farquhar sand, not Mahé town water.
Fly. 8 wt. Gotcha, Crazy Charlie, shrimp. Long fluoro, soft landing. Bahamas will forgive more than Biscayne.
Spin. Possible with a tiny jig. The honest tool here is the fly.
None in Texas. Keys mecca — flats, banks, wrecks. Bahamas west sides May–Oct. Puerto Rico: east-island banks, not Condado. Seychelles 'permit' is often the Indo-Pacific fish (Trachinotus blochii) — same job, different ocean.
Fly. 9 wt, 10 in wind. Merkin / Del Brown / Raghead. Lead the tailer, let the crab sink, one slow twitch.
Spin. Often deadlier. Live crab, DOA crab, 20–30 fluoro. No apology.
Eastern Pacific. East Cape and the mouth of the Cortez. Absent from Texas, Louisiana, the Keys, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and the Seychelles. Same rule as the rooster: this ocean only.
Fly. Teaser and fly. East Cape and Magdalena when the water is right. Pacific only.
Spin. Troll. Baja. Not the Gulf of Mexico. Not Texas.
Mexico. Mexico: East Cape and the mouth of the Cortez. Typically catch-and-release. Verify CONAPESCA. Not an Atlantic white.
Eastern Pacific — Baja East Cape and La Paz, Costa Rica, Panama. Absent from Texas, Louisiana, the Keys, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and the Seychelles. Lives on this atlas only on the Mexico Pacific desks.
Fly. 10–12 wt. A big baitfish in the surf. Baja and Central America Pacific, not the Gulf.
Spin. Live mullet in the wash. Same ocean as the rooster comb — the Pacific.