6/8/16 June Backcountry Fishing Report in Islamorada

Tropical storm Colin stayed well to the north of us so we didn't have any major direct impact from the nasty weather the last few days.  However we did get some kicked up winds out of the southwest quadrant, blowing 15-25 mph the last few days which isn't exactly what you want for your summer time fishing here in the Keys.  It definitely made things a little difficult and mudded up many of the areas and bays we like to fish in the backcountry this time of year, though of course there were still some options to fish.  Capt. Mike Bassett today reported a good catch of nice snook and big jacks on a half day up to the east using live pilchards.  Capt. Clyde Upchurch had good tarpon fishing the last few days and a very good day as the first frontal lines came in a couple days ago.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk has also been on the tarpon consistently the last couple weeks today was the first day we unfortuntealy didn't get one.  Capt. Skip Nielsen has been catching some tarpon locally as well, he also reported a good day of snook fishing a few days ago before the weather got real nasty back at cape sable.  Capt. Jeff Beeler had some good snook and baby tarpon action back there a few days ago too.  Capt. John Johansen has had some tarpon action and some nice mangrove snapper fishing around the islands in the backcountry.  Capt. Mike Venezia reported a mixed bag of things while fishing the flats for bonefish today, they didn't find any bones but had just about everything else you could imagine up there.  Capt. Jim Willcox has had some decent fishing way back in the sticks in the everglades, fishing deep in the creeks for redfish and snook.  Things should settle back down the winds have already laid down quite nicely this evening, and the next few days it looks to be 5-10 mph or less, so it should be back to normal summer time conditions.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk