Recent inshore fishing reports from the Florida Keys.
Backcountry Keys King
Florida Sportsman member: piner_wahoo
Check out this nice king the well-known Captain Harlan of American Allegiance Charters put his client on. The also managed some nice yellowtail, mangrove snapper and a spanish mackerel.
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Monster Tarpon
Florida Sportsman member: syxx
We caught some fresh bait to start the day. We had to look around a little but got one good throw on ’em. We made a run into the backcountry in search of silver. We finally got into some clean water and found a big load of tarpon! Irv ended up getting two large fish of 150 pounds and 110 pounds to the boat. We also caught plenty of sharks, including a few bruiser black tips that were lots of fun. Around noon, we decided to look for tripletails and caught a couple, but then the wind really cranked up like crazy!
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Islamorada Tarpon Action
Florida Sportsman member: syxx
Mackerel fishing was very good early on with lots of decent size fish. After an hour or so of that we had enough and then gave the tarpon a try. The water was still a little chilly but just getting in that range where you may get a shot or two. Well we were lucky and Larry got to catch two tarpon, one about 110 lbs and the other about 140 lbs! Big migraters that we often see in the early part of season. We stuck it out and tried to get Joe one but didn’t have any more bites the last hour or so that we fished, but the tide had slowed down and things seem to quiet down.
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Epic Islamorada Backcountry
Florida Sportsman member: syxx
Once we got set up and the tide started moving in, it was game on. Pam and Lars each landed well into the double digits on snook, and quite a few ‘big girls’ for us. The multiple double headers were a blast! We also had quite a few black drum and nice redfish too. Very good to see the reds, as they’ve been hard to find especially in the summertime, as much of their habitat has been beat up due to algae blooms and grass die off. But in the winter, they do show up in the ‘winter time holes’ along with their cousins the black drum, snook, and sheepshead. We also saw several small tarpon rolling about. I didn’t have much hope that they would bite, but knew it was a possibility. We kept throwing in their direction, and soon Pam hooked and landed a nice 25 pound tarpon!
Key Largo Patch Reef Snapper
Florida Sportsman member: CaptainHeiko
“I think I need to be in 50-60 feet water to find the bigger yellowtails. I caught a ton of small ones, some keeper snapper and a short grouper among other things.” Forum member CaptainHeiko lured them in with two bags of chum. It seemed the yellowtail were fired up for the frozen glass minnows he presented, while the mangrove snapper preferred fresh cut ballyhoo. He used a 1/16oz snapper jighead attached with a loop knot on a spinning rod. The short grouper that were caught went after a whole ballyhoo that had a 6/O circle hook through its tail. Some small grunts also went after the ballyhoo. He ended up going home with a few mangrove snapper to fry up.
Key West Inshore Report
Florida Sportsman member: kayakerinkeywest
The water is still a murky, dusty green, with that sort of rotting plant smell to it coming off the islands. It took a bit, but I was able to locate the big schools of pilchards I saw before the storm. They were not spread out along the flats, but huge schools were in the deep cuts along the channels. Both days only took one throw of my 6′ net, which produced overflowing two buckets worth. I used these for chummers to get things started and freelined them back for lots of rod bending action. The first day was all jacks, and the second was all juvenile tarpon.
Reef Fishing Lower Keys
Florida Sportsman member: latitudeajustment
I headed southwest into some sloppy seas on a solo trip, hoping once again for the elusive mahi. There were no takers on the deep troll except for bonito. I headed back in to the reef and it was non-stop action. I was using a variety of cut bait, but once the bull sharks arrived, it was all over I lost a ton of fish and multiple rigs, but just great action every drop kind of day, with some very quality table fare.
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.
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!
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.
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
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