Recent inshore fishing reports from the Florida Keys.
Fishing Trip in Marathon
Florida Sportsman member: Soda Popinski
The water was still dead calm, so rather than waste a moment, we grabbed a box of chum and headed back out around 8:30 for a night raid on the reef. We started drifting in 60′ with the chum bag out and cut pinfish as bait hoping for yellowtails and maybe mangos. We were using 1 1/2oz knocker rigs with 10’of 12 pound flouro. I’m reeling in grunts and my son is missing the bite for whatever reason, so I sabiki up some live bait in the chum slick and throw it out on a freeline with a circle hook and a wire leader. About 20 minutes in, sure enough the reel starts screaming and he’s on. We get the gaff, get him in and get our first king on ice.
Big Pine Key Variety
Florida Sportsman member: Viking
On a recent trip to Bahia Honda State Park, I was able to find plenty of areas to catch tarpon, bonefish and plenty of other varieties of fish. This video covers how to identify productive areas and the baits used to catch fish.
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Lower Keys Tarpon Fishing
Florida Sportsman member: kayakerinkeywest
I had been smacking the tarpon pretty good before this wind started today. Hopefully this last week will be a great start to the tarpon season.
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Key West Backcountry Meat Hunt
Florida Sportsman member: kayakerinkeywest
Had a couple of buddies who needed some eater fish for the weekend. We went out on Friday with Jose to the Gulf side backcountry for some cero’s and snapper.
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Big Pine Key Mackerel
Florida Sportsman member: piner_wahoo
There are some cero mackerel pushing ten+ pounds right now. Unfortunately, there’s also lots of sharks out as well.
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Keys Tarpon
Florida Sportsman member: kmagnuss
In three nights of fishing we jumped 37 tarpon, 14 were landed. Out of the 37, all but two were over 50 pounds. I would estimate that at least 25 of them were over 80 pounds.
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Big Pine Key Mackerel
Florida Sportsman member: latitudeajustment
Mrs. LA and I made a crack of noon start today and headed out back to see what we could find. Thankfully, the macks came to play.
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Lobster in the Keys
Florida Sportsman member: latitudeajustment
I made a late run yesterday and thankfully scored two for my wife’s birthday. We got out today and found a few more. Great times and great eats!
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Keys Backcountry Mackerel and Snapper
Florida Sportsman member: piner_wahoo
Get some macks, lite off the smoker, it’s fish dip season! And tax time, too, but the tax man came to the boat this time. It was a 10′ bull who was very bitey. Snapping and biting at boat, fingers, etc.
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Keys Backcountry Fishing
Florida Sportsman member: piner_wahoo
Senior forum member piner_wahoo and some friends have had two consecutive successful days out in the Florida Keys backcountry. They left with some nice lobster, trout, snapper and grouper- but not without a lot of work.
Cudjoe Key Permit
Florida Sportsman member: Bonecracker
After three solid days of poling her around all over the Keys from Marathon to Cudjoe all we had to show for our efforts but a sunburn and some empty beer bottles. Well all the stars lined up on Wednesday and we finally had a permit actually eat a live crab! The fish fought hard for 15 to 20 minutes and finally it turned over on its side near the boat and finally gave up!
Lower Keys Bonefish
Florida Sportsman member: torchkey
The flats were active with sharks, barracuda, and bonefish. Had some good shots at bones and ended up with a couple of nice fish. Ended the day catching some trout for the dinner table. It was a good day to be on the water!
August in Islamorada
Florida Sportsman member: syxx
Though my best days this week we landed 9 out of 12 tarpon in two trips, most in the 30 to 60 pound range. I’ve been fishing mostly fresh mullet that we catching first thing in the morning still in the backcountry. In the bays the trout and snapper fishing has been best out closer to the gulf. Here the water is cooler and also alive with various baitfish such as ballyhoo, pilchards, pinfish, mullet, and more.
Tarpon Time in the Keys
Florida Sportsman member: syxx
I’ve been fishing tarpon since the first week of February and we’ve had pretty good early season fishing but now the real big schools are showing up. Just a few days ago we had a 5 fish day with most fish in the 60-100 pound range.
Upper Keys Bonefish
Florida Sportsman member: Tailinreds05
We caught the last two hours of the falling tide and that’s when I picked up this chubby tailer with a well placed live shrimp. Had two other shots on the falling tide but couldn’t get them to eat. After the mid morning slack wore off and the tide started pushing in, the fish started showing themselves again.
Fall Fishing in Islamorada
Florida Sportsman member: syxx
If you put your time in you can usually produce a bite or two, though not a guaranteed thing. Mullet is still the go-to bait, you just have to find them usually early in the morning. We’ve also been having some luck with big goliath groupers in the gulf plus plenty of big sharks such as bulls and lemons […]
Bahia Honda Slam
Florida Sportsman member: DogDoc
After a late night trip yesterday, we thought the best way to catch the midday outgoing tide while the winds allowed was to run up to Bahia Honda again. David and I bucked the east wind to reach the protection of the bridge, but found little relief from the wind and waves when we got there. The wind direction quartered the current, augmenting the waves and making it hard to keep baits where they needed to be. Weeds were also a bigger problem than last week.
We had several hits and drag pulls before the first hookup, but that ended up being a nice 75-pound tarpon. A few minutes later another hit but no hookup, then a bait down deep was taken. The fish ran long but stayed deep, and when we caught up with it we were pleasantly surprised that it was a 40-pound permit.
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Biscayne Bonefish
Florida Sportsman member: Tailinreds05
Decided to take a break from the back country out of islamorada and fish Biscayne with a buddy of mine. We left islamorada at 6 and drove up to card sound to get the skiff wet. We cruised the 25 miles or so out to the flats of Biscayne and I finally connected to the infamous grey ghosts. All it took was a trip out of Florida bay and the flats that I have come to love since moving to the keys over a year ago. We were throwing fly most of the day but this guy took a live shrimp. The fight was awesome 150 yards of line taken in 10 seconds.
Lower Keys Permit
Florida Sportsman member: swordslayer71
Had a very short window of opportunity today due to time constraints, but definitely not due to weather. It was absolutely gorgeous. Flat calm and clear water, which is perfect for sight fishing Permit on the reef line. We took 3 crabs with us for 3 people. It took us about 5 minutes to start seeing a few small wads here and there and then we started seeing bigger packs. Once we found the larger groups it was game on and we traded in those crabs for 3 Permit.
Lower Keys Cobia
Florida Sportsman member: swordslayer71
Today I had some time off and decided to go into the backcountry and hide from the…
