A few tips and lessons learnt for UK bass lure fishers who may find themselves with some time to spare but not much money on a trip to southern Florida.

From Miami I escaped down to the Florida keys for three days of free solo lure fishing and to do some recon for a big trip in 2015.

I traveled from the north of the keys all the way to Key West at the southern most point of the keys. I fished at many spots along the route and cooled down in all the air-conditioned outstanding tackle shops along the way.

You can fairly easily catch Jack Crevalle, Blue Runners, Barracuda and Snappers around the bridges on a standard travel spinning rod, 25lb braid and a 3000 reel without any issues. I did plan to have a shot at tarpon but once I came face to face with them in the marinas I decided against it as my tackle wasn't up to the job and I didn't want to invest in in new setup.

Lessons learnt:

1. The best shore fishing I discovered was around bridges in the Islamorada area between the famous Bud N Mary’s and Robbie's fishing marinas. That’s good news as it’s only about half way down the Keys.
2. Fish down current or in eddies behind the bridges.
3. A wire trace or 50lb fluorocarbon stopped the barracudas cutting the line.
4. Start fishing very early if you want good results from the shore.
5. You can catch Jack Crevalle even during the middle of the day if fishing soft plastics on the bottom in deep water behind bridges.
6. The rocks are slippy and unsurprisingly it hurts when your knee smashes into one.
7. Upgrade your hooks. I hooked into but lost a few good fish as the standard UK treble and jig head hooks got straightened or just crushed by unseen monsters.
8. You have to purchase a saltwater shore fishing license from major tackle stores or just call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission with your credit card to hand and you’ll be given a licence number within minutes.
9. If you have very light gear or even a 5wt fly rod you can have fun at any time of day catching small Leatherjackets.

If you’re in Florida on holiday or business and want to try some cheap lure fishing without upgrading your UK bass gear I hope the above helps.

Stay tuned if you want to join Lure Fishing for Bass when we go back to the Keys for more DIY shore fishing, heading offshore jigging for bigger species and on the flats lure fishing for 100lb+ tarpon.