8/4/12 Permit fishing in Islamorada

Permit fishing in Islamorada has been great on the wrecks back in the gulf as of late.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished with Lee and Mike Corson yesterday evening and today.  Last night we snuck out after the squalls came through to tarpon fish.  They each got tarpon, one 65 lb and one 80 lbs, as well as a lemon shark and a nurse shark.  This was all on dead bait, we tried drifting crabs at dark with the last of the falling tide, however the wind was NNE and the tarpon were not very happy or active, but not a bad night.  Today we ventured out deep into the gulf of mexico for this august fishing in islamorada.  We stopped on the way and caught plenty of ladyfish for some goliath bait, as well as some trout and snappers.  We then headed to the wrecks, and it was game on when we got there.  There was a slight breeze which was nice, permit were schooled up thick around the boat.  Immediatly we hooked up, they were eating shrimp the best.  We tried throwing crabs but they only wanted shrimp, and even caught some on bare jigs.   Lee hooked and caught a nice 40 lb tarpon we caught on a pinfish, we saw some rolling and pitched it to him and he exploded on the bait right away!  We also got the goliaths going, and caught about 6 of those, including one that was likely 350 lbs.  We had to manuever carefully around the boat to finally get that one in!  Had one cobia swim up, he was not interested in eating much though.  All in all we caught about 15 permit, it was a fabulous day.  The boys were wore out so we left early and were back at the dock a little after 1 PM!  This next week the tides are ideal out there, if the wind stays fairly calm, give Bud n' Mary's a call!  Also good tides for night tarpon fishing in islamorada!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
rick@seethefloridakeys.net