9/19/16 September backcountry fishing in the Florida Keys

September is going by quick though we are still getting out on the water a fair bit.  A handful of guides have been fishing just about every day which is nice to see and that is nice to have this time of year.  The last week we had an incredible tarpon bite for several days.  We had multiple tarpon landed 3 days in a row when we were fishing for them.  It was some of the best fishing I had seen all year with fish just about every where you looked and they were also happy for the most part on the start of the incoming tide.  Today we were not fishing for them but did see a handful while we were running around.  We got into some snook and redfish today it wasn't red hot but one spot we caught plenty of fish and then picked a handful of snook in a couple other areas.  Nice size reds they were great to see!  Capt. Bill Bassett had some good fishing back there a couple days ago too reported plenty of redfish and some snook.  Capt. Jim Willcox has been back there some as well and reported some nice snook, a few reds, and nice size  jack crevelles.  Capt. John Johansen had some good snapper fishing on half day trips the last week which he said they got plenty of fish for dinner.  We also had some good trout and snapper fishing a couple days ago on  a half day, lots of nice size trout.  Capt.  Mike Venezia reported some nice size snook over the weekend he was fishing the Herman Lucerne tournament, it was a busy weekend with lots of boats in that.  Capt. Mike Bassett reported some good action on the pathch reefs the other day, some nice mangrove snappers and a few porgies and couple hogfish.  I'll be out of town for a week or so here, but October is right around the corner and that is usually the start of our fall bait run which can lead to tremendous backcountry fishing!  

Capt. Rick Stanczyk