8/26/15 Late August Florida Keys Backcountry Fishing Report

We are nearing the end of August islamorada fishing season is definitely winding down here now.  Only a handful of charter boats or guides fishing every day, but there are still plenty of fish to catch - and even more for you since there is much less pressure on them!  We've just dropped our room rates to low season levels, so be sure to check them out at our islamorada accommodations page.  I was lucky enough to fish most days in the last week and fishing was really good for quite a few of them.  There were still plenty of tarpon in the backcountry channels we had some big days with multiple shots and multiple fish landed each day.  We had nice incoming tide to start the mornings, making the bait easy to catch, and tarpon more than willing to eat.  For the next week or so however the tides will be falling in the early morning which has made bait much more difficult to get the last few weeks, which is a big part of productive tarpon fishing this time of year!  Elsewhere in the florida keys backcountry I haven't received a whole lot of reports.  I know Capt. Bill Bassett had some good trout action with a big barracuda and shark, as well as a few snappers yesterday.  Capt. John Johansen was out of town though got out yesterday on the patches with some decent mangrove snappers and yellowtails.  Capt. Mike Venezia had some tarpon, shark, snapper, and trout action with his customers as well earlier this week.  There are still some good possibilities of snook and redfish in the skinny water back there, with more snook being found around the islands moats, shorelines, and creeks.  Looks like we will be getting some weather from Tropical Storm Erika near the end of the weekend.  Nobody is sure exactly what is going to happen if it is going to go north of Miami or down below the Keys, though it doesn't look to be a super strong storm if anything hopefully only a category 1-2 tops if it veers north, and supposedly weaker if it goes south.  Luckliy this is the peak of hurricane season and it's been a slow one and hopefully won't be much more to worry about from here on out!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Zack doing battle with a poon!

John got a nice tarpon pictured here!

Chris and Alix each got to catch a nice tarpon on Friday!

My wife Elizabeth Baxter and her brother John each battled tarpon on Satuday.

Doug and his father both landed nice tarpon Sunday morning.

Though this is a smaller one, Vince Sr, Vince Jr, and Frank all landed tarpon 75 to 100 lbs on Monday!

Jim landing a nice tarpon, his buddy Bob and his wife also got to battle one.

Capt. Mike Venezia's customers with a nice tarpon.