Hopefully everyone is staying safe out there. It was really quiet down here during our lockdown, fishing was awesome, but I was just taking out family, friends and locals. There was definitely a lot less pressure on the fish the last few months. Overall, tourism is still slow on the island, but there’s been plenty people traveling down to take advantage of the fishing. With the current cases in Florida on a steady rise, there’s a lot of uncertainty in our future. Luckily for me, I’ve been staying away from people and wearing a face covering long before the corona virus was around, so besides the loss of work, not much has changed on my end.

We had some really good tarpon fishing around this last full moon in July. The weather was awesome and we were able to find the tarpon feeding good in the mornings and sometimes throughout the day. There are still some big fish here, but most likely, we will start to see less of them as we move later into July. However, we will still have plenty of the juvenile tarpon around well into the fall. We fish them close to the mangroves or in the bait schools out on the flats. You can target them with fly rods or light spin gear with small soft plastics, buck tail jigs or live baits.

Traditionally, it’s getting to be the right time of year to target bonefish and and permit on the flats. However, recently, the bonefish have been around all year and, as long as the water is warm enough you can get shots at them in the Lower Keys. You do have a better chance at seeing them in large schools or in a big mud this time of year though. The permit are back on the flats now too, we can see less of them in the spring time as they head offshore to spawn, but this a great time of year to fish them as they make their way into the backcountry. The fishing is shaping up to be excellent over the next few months, so if your going stir crazy and want to get out in nature, come fish in the keys.

Summer Fishing Report

Jamie Connell