6/22/14 Summer Time Fishing in Key Largo

Well it’s almost the end of June and fishing is as hot as the weather here in Key Largo Florida.  The tarpon are starting to slow down a bit throughout the local keys areas from Key Largo to Islamorada, however the summer time fish I often fish for in the everglades are showing up more and more consistently.  Today we caught 3 out of 5 nice tarpon back there, including a 100 lb tarpon.  Many of the fish this time of year though are in the 30 – 50 lb range, perfect fight on light tackle.  Mullet are my bait of choice and we often leave early to net them back there, where they can be found throughout the summer and fall even though they are not ‘running’ anymore.  We’ve also been getting into some good snook fishing lately.  I had a 20+ snook day this week, plus another day with double digit snook and almost as many redfish.  Pilchards give you the upper hand when snook fishing, and given the right tidal conditions we’ve been able to chum up some nice baits for that.  Elsewhere in the bays, trout and mangrove snapper fishing has been great.  A good option if your looking for dinner.  Shrimp or artificial GULP will work here, though I prefer to use chunk baits such as small ballyhoos or mullet to catch the larger snappers.  The gulf has had a handful of permit, cobia, and tripletail on occasion.  There has also been some big sharks, goliath grouper, and occasionally other ‘big fish’ as well.  July is a great time of year to fish down here in the Florida Keys, evening tarpon fishing can still be very productive if you have the right conditions with tides etc…  Drop me an email and I’ll point you in the right direction!  Come on down for some july key largo fishing!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk