Florida Deep Drop Fishing Locations
NOTE – Deep Drop Spots are not part of any sales or BOGO free offers
- Stuart to Palm Beach Deep Drop Fishing Spots
- Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale Deep Drop Fishing Spots
- Panhandle Deep Drop Fishing Spots – North Florida Gulf
- Pulley Ridge Fishing Spots – SW Florida Gulf
- Fort Lauderdale to Miami Florida Deep Drop Fishing Spots
- Upper Florida Keys Deep Drop Fishing Spots
- Middle Keys Deep Drop Fishing Spots
- Lower Keys and Key West Florida Deep Drop Fishing Spots
- See available Swordfish Fishing Spots!
Florida deep drop fishing spots from Stuart, Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Miami and the Florida Keys, Pulley Ridge and the Florida panhandle including Pensacola, Destin, Panama City beach, Port St Joe and Apalachicola. Deep drop fishing is a growing and incredibly popular sport over the past ten years. Florida fishing spots offers some of the best fishing spots available for deep drop fishing off the southeast Florida coast and the Florida Gulf. Load our spots to your boats GPS, Mobile devices and computers. See the simplicity of our GPS and Mobile files!
IMPORTANT – Deep Drop spots and Swordfish spots do not apply to any sales events or BOGO free offers on this site. — Thank you, Dana King, GM
Florida Deep Drop Fishing Spots Rating
Florida deep drop fishing spots is your secret weapon for fishing deep water on the Atlantic and in the Florida Gulf. From Stuart to the Keys, Pulley Ridge or the Panhandle, we planted our flag long ago in the Florida deep drop fishing community. The spots are proven, the water is deep and the fish can be large! See all available Deep Drop fishing spots here.
Deep Drop Fishing in South Florida. What’s on the bottom out there?
Florida Deep drop fishing spots cover deep water bottom habitat with such as divots, Pinnacles, sea-mounts, high and low ledges, sloping ledges, south facing sharp drop ledges with north side backdrops and holes, ridges and other areas of bottom that hold good deep drop fish.
We are #1 in the Florida Deep Drop fishing spots business. Period. Our proven Florida deep drop fishing spots come from years of local deep drop fishing experience from local pro’s and guides, coupled with long periods of time mapping out and fishing the ocean floor depths from 600 ft to 1800 ft. Finding or locating deep drop fishing spots entails detailed experience in understanding the Florida ocean floor topography and time on the water deep drop fishing. We extend many thanks to our dedicated guides along with the Garmin sonar team.
Guide to Florida Deep Drop Fishing
Ethics – Florida Fishing Spots and the GPS Fishing Maps Co are stark advocates of fishermen’s rights and ethics. Our deep drop fishing spots are private in nature and only a predesignated number of them are sold each season. Please do your part in protecting these spots as this research with our guide team is ongoing, very expensive, exhaustive and extensive.
Most importantly, Please do your part in limiting your catch when possible. Although black belly rose fish aka scorpion fish are not limited in the EEZ, it’s easy to get carried away in keeping a non-limited species. It would be nice to see this species (and all others) be around for years to come for many other deep drop fisherman to enjoy including our children.
Types of Deep Water Bottom Fish and Habitat
So many exotic looking fish come from deep water spots it can be hard to determine what you have landed. Here’s a quick guide to help you understand what types of deep water bottom fish are caught in South Florida and the Florida Keys.
Snowy Grouper
Snowy Grouper in Florida are a prized catch due to the superb table quality of the species. It is considered by all to be the best eating fish found on the ocean floor.
Snowy Grouper Habitat – The Snowy Grouper tends to associate with structure of some kind. Snowy Grouper in Florida are found in depths between 450 to 1100 ft. over a wide array of structure and holes or rocky bottom ledges. They are nearly always associated with a hard structure in “hangy” areas. You may lose rigs, but you know you’re in the right place if you are! Keep dropping, watching the sonar and watching your rod closely. Use large baits such as whole bullet Bonito (1-3 pounds) to catch Snowy Grouper. If you can’t get your hands on Bonito, use small Blackfin or huge chunks of Dolphin, a gigantic squid or huge chunk of Cero, Spanish or King Mackerel. 12/0 -15/0 circle hooks are the best option for these bucket mouth Grouper of the depths.
Golden Tilefish
Golden Tiles or Tilefish are highly sought-after due to their superb table quality much like other deep water bottom fish. They inhabit Muddy Bottom and tend to burrow into the mud. Tilefish are often found and depths ranging from 350 feet out to 1200 feet of water.
They are cousins to the Gray Tilefish also known as a Blue Line Tilefish and both offer beyond superb table quality as mentioned above. Like most other deep water bottom fish, squid seems to be the bait of choice but make no mistake, Tilefish will bite pretty much any cut bait if dragged across their lair. Fishing directly on the bottom is the most crucial part of fishing for Tilefish. If you are to feet off the bottom you will likely never get a bite from a Tilefish, let alone multiple hookups on one rig.
There are limits and seasons on various Tilefish in Florida. Make sure you see the FWC rules on any type of Tilefish or any other deep drop fish before you target them.
Queen Snapper
Queen Snapper offer incredible table fare. Queen Snapper in Florida are often found near High rock ledges or humps and they are often found in and around dips or holes. A rugged ocean floor and Terrain is a prime environment for Queen Snapper to produce good results. When Queen Snapper are biting in Florida, they are not very picky about their meals. When they’re fired up, they will eat everything from squid to chunk Bonito or Barracuda chunks.
Queen snapper are a soft mouthed fish and bringing them up quickly is sometimes difficult when bull sharks or reef sharks are in the vicinity. The race against sharks to the surface with Queens often pulls the hook. A fine line must be found between the perfect drag and too much drag. We suggest using large hooks to aid in securing a harder area of the mouth or a deeper hook set into the fish. Use 12-14/0 hooks and we prefer a 3 to 6 hook rig with strong widegap Circle hooks. – Pro Tip: Queen Snapper can be illusive and they are a migratory species. Their migration is not well understood, but when they stop biting, they they are rarely caught during that “no queen bite” time throughout southeast Florida