All Water Charters

All Water Charters was founded in 2013 by Captain Kyle Kelso, who has lived and fished in Key West since 2009 and built the business around a fairly focused specialty: private backcountry fishing and light tackle reef trips, tailored specifically to the skill level of whoever is on the boat that day. Rather than running the same trip format for every group, the operation adjusts technique and location based on whether the anglers aboard are seasoned or fishing for the first time.

Backcountry fishing takes the boat through the shallow, mangrove-lined water on the Gulf side of the Lower Keys, a very different environment from the open ocean trolling most people picture when they think of a Key West fishing charter. Light tackle reef trips apply a similar finesse-oriented approach closer to the patch reefs near the island, giving anglers who prefer a more technical, sight-fishing style of angling an alternative to heavier offshore trolling gear.

Target species commonly include tarpon, one of the signature gamefish of backcountry Florida fishing, along with snapper, trout, sharks, and jacks, all of which show up regularly in the grass flats and channels the boat works. The business also specifically markets family and kids fishing trips, framing these not simply as a scaled-down version of a serious charter but as their own category built around making the experience approachable and enjoyable for young or first-time anglers.

Docked at the marina on Peninsular Avenue on Stock Island, the operation benefits from proximity to some of the calmer backcountry water on that side of the Keys, well suited to the light tackle and family-oriented trips that make up much of its business. Captain Kelso’s more than a decade of local fishing experience by the time the business turned ten years old in 2023 has given him a working knowledge of how conditions and fish behavior shift through the seasons in that particular stretch of backcountry water, knowledge that shows up in how trips get planned around weather and tide rather than run on a fixed script regardless of conditions.

Backcountry fishing depends heavily on tide stage, since many of the flats and channels the boat works are only accessible or productive within certain tide windows, and a captain based locally since 2009 generally times trips around that rather than a fixed daily schedule. Families booking a kids fishing trip are typically encouraged to mention children’s ages ahead of time so gear and expectations can be adjusted accordingly, since a technique aimed at a serious tarpon angler looks quite different from one built around a first grader’s first fish. Light tackle enthusiasts researching Key West guides often specifically seek out operators like this one that lean into finesse fishing rather than heavier offshore trolling as their core specialty.