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Doctrine · not a honey-hole list

Seasonal fundamentals

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.

All coastsTexasLouisianaFloridaBahamasMexicoPuerto RicoSeychelles
Any typeFlySpinSightWadeSkiffRocksMarshSkinnyOffshore
Any fishRedfishSpeckled troutSouthern flounderBlack drumSheepsheadSnookTarponBonefishPermitJack crevalleMahi-mahiSailfishTuna (blackfin / yellowfin)HogfishYellowtail snapperMangrove / gray snapperMutton snapperRed snapperLane snapperGag grouperRed grouperBlack grouperCobiaFlorida pompanoTripletailKing mackerelSpanish mackerelGreater amberjackWahooBlue marlinWhite marlinStriped marlinSwordfishGreat barracudaRoosterfishGiant trevally
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico — urban tarpon, east-island flats

DNER water. Real NOAA gauges. Not a Keys copy and not FWC.

San Juan is Condado Lagoon and the bay — tarpon under the bridges, snook in the edges, a north-coast drop that is an offshore method. Vieques and Culebra are the Spanish Virgins: more sand, bones and permit, Mosquito Bay a reserve. La Parguera is the southwest mangrove desk, clocked to Magueyes 9759110. Blue marlin live in the story of this island; this brief will not invent a billfish on a lagoon. License is DNER. Do not paste a Jupiter snook closure onto Condado.

September. The island exhales. Tarpon still eat. East banks start to look like themselves.

Type

Sight fishing

Sight water wants cleaner, often smaller range and a sun angle you can read. Lower Laguna and Baffin are the Texas classrooms — inches of water, serpulid rock, a tail that looks like a redfish until it is a drum. Keys oceanside is permit and bones on banks that get a boat every hour. Bahamas is the same game with more fish and fewer excuses. Alphonse is the Indian Ocean version — GT on the rim, bones inside. Polarized glasses are not optional. If you cannot see the bottom, you are fishing yesterday's rumor.

Vieques

September · peak

What is actually on

    SnookHogfishYellowtail snapperMangrove / gray snapperLane snapper
Peak Present Off

Closures

No coast-wide harvest closure on the board. Still verify before you keep a fish.

Permit

Trachinotus falcatus

Present SeptemberPuerto Rico

J

F

M

A

M

J

J

A

S

O

N

D

Thermal window

—

66°92°

70–88°F · best 74–84°F

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.

Leads the brief on Vieques.

Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico: treat as catch-and-release. Verify DNER.

Official source

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