8/12/16 August Backcountry Islamorada Fishing Report

August is well on it's way and it sure feels like summer here in the Keys.  Things have still been remarkedly busy at the marina with many boats still getting out every day and the weather has been good for the most part.  We've had couple rainy days where people had to either alter their plans or even cancel days which is no fun but definitely not the norm.  I myself have still been tarpon fishing mostly this month.  We've caught a few nice fish and still finding them most every day.  I had Stephen and Michael Johnson out a couple days earlier this week.  Fishing was pretty good we got a couple tarpon on day 1 along with plenty of sharks, the second day they wanted to go after snook and we had pretty good fishing for them too getting into the double digits plus a nice redfish and couple jacks.  Though the immediate day following the tarpon, we tried to get out for some tarpon and got chased home by the weather.  We did get a good hour of fishing in though for the early morning, found the tarpon but they would not cooperate just not interested in biting!  Anyways not super red hot fishing but definitely some quality that you could put a little time in for.  Earlier in the month we had a day with a nice tarpon and also a monster 350 lb goliath grouper which was very cool we got him on a tarpon rod in one of the channels.  Capt. Mike Venezia and Capt. Gunner Guthrie have reported a decent bite of trout and snappers in the bay since the winds have let up.  Early this month we had strong south/southwesterly winds and it had mucked up the near gulf bays pretty bad leading to some tough fishing conditions out there.  Things have started to clean up though now as the winds swing more easterly and have died out a little bit.  Capt. Jim Willcox reported some nice size jack crevelles out there one day.  Capt. Mike Bassett reported some snook the other day as well as a nice small tarpon.  Fishing can still be good this time of year in the backcountry it isn't red hot every day, and sometimes one day is good and the next day not.  Things get kind of up and down with the hot water temperatures and the conditions, but you don't know unless you go!  

Capt. Rick Stanczyk