Kayak fishing in the Florida keys

 I am headed to Florida in a few weeks with the family for vacation. We will be staying in the northern keys. I would live to rent a hobie and do some fishing while there. Does anything have any experience or recommendations for this area? There are a number of outfits that rent kayaks.

Advice on gear and strategies would be great. I don't want to pack fishing gear, so I will probably have to rent buy equipment there.

Thanks!
Dan

I don't know what you are interested in trying, so I'll give you one of my favorite ways to fish and that is to drift and sight-fish the flats and mangroves. That'll be primarily the north side of the Keys. You want to find an area that has access to deep water. Fish the last part of the outgoing and the first part of the incoming tide. On the flats, look for potholes. Fish tend to get stranded when the tide goes out. Cast a lure or bait over the pothole and work it back through the pothole. At the edges of the mangroves, look for deep pockets on the edges. Cast to the edges into the shade of the mangroves if possible. At the deep water drop offs, drop a jig and jerkbait to the bottom and bounce it off the sand. You can get flounder, redfish, snook, mangrove snapper, etc. For gear, get a 7-7.5 ft rod with medium to MH action, something rated to 17 or 20 pound line. You want something with enough backbone to pull a fish out of the mangrove roots. Line should be 20-30 pound braid for the main and assorted leaders up to 20 pounds. I like fluoro, but mono works. Also, you will get the occasional spanish mackerel that can clip 20 mono like it wasn't even there so you might consider wire leader.

Most importantly, wear a floppy hat and have your sun screen and bug repellent on at all times. Nothing ruins a vacation like being sunburned and bitten.

I will second the bug spray!!! Do not forget it! My wife and I were down there for our honeymoon and those mangroves house HORDES of mosquitoes. We made our way down from Miami to Key West and hit a bunch of places on the way down...Duck Key and some of the surrounding areas around Big Pine Key are super cool. Some of the areas around Marathon were awesome. Kayaking and kayak fishing are super huge down there so you should not have any issues hooking up with someone to rent from. The people we ran into down there were super cool too. Have a fun, safe time.

Redfish, flounder, speckled seatrout, drum, sheepshead, and snook are all real popular targets.  Bucktails with white soft bodies, DOA shrimp, live mud minnows, live shrimp, and live fiddler crabs all work well.  Start watching YouTube vids and you'll quickly learn what works best for the type of fish you're after.