5/21/17 May Backcountry Fishing Report Islamorada

Sorry I haven't been able to keep up with the fishing reports as well, having a little baby at home has definitely occupied a lot of my free time!  May is going by fast and we are starting to get into summer time mode here in the Florida Keys.  The last week we had some heavy winds though it's starting to get nice again now and looks like this coming week it'll be nice.  Summer typically means lighter winds, warmer weather, and often very good fishing since the conditions stabalize.  The tarpon bite has been a little up and down though as we've had to deal with periods of heavy winds that have been sustained for multiple days.  But we've definitely still been catching.  I had Pete Davidson and crew the last 5 days and we had tarpon action every day.  The first couple days were nice and flat calm, we had multiple tarpon both days fishing in the backcountry.  The last 3 days were rough and we did go out back one of those days and caught a tarpon, but the following two days we fished locally around the channels and bridges close to home.  We did catch a couple tarpon close by one day, and the last day had a couple bites but they just didn't stay buttoned on for us.  Though a great 5 days of fishing overall.  Yesterday I had Matt Newman and his son Aiden out for a 3/4 day.  I was happy to mix it up a little bit after grinding hard for 5 days of tarpon only.  We caught plenty of snappers and some nice trout for dinner, then just tried for tarpon the last hour and managed to get a nice 80 lber for Aiden!  Capt. Mark Hlis has reported some good sight fishing in the everglades and has said the redfish are starting to be more plentiful which is good to hear as we had a tough year last year with those summer time reds in shallow with some of the algae blooms we had to deal with.  He also got a nice snook on fly with an angler.  Capt. Dave Sisung has reported some tarpon action locally as has Capt. Jeff Beeler, Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti, Capt. Gunner Guthrie, Capt. John Johansen, and Capt. Mike Venezia.  Capt. Bill Bassett and Capt. Jim Willcox reported some good fishing in the gulf a couple weeks ago on the calm days they had pompano, mackerel, triple tail, golatih grouper, and cobia!  They also got into some snook deep in the everglades as well.  As we get into June look for the tarpon bite to get a little more steady, the evening trips fishing with crabs should get more productive as the mullet start to thin out.  Snook fishing in the everglades should be a very good option too with calm winds and clean water.  I love fishing in the summer time here, June - August are just about my favorite time of year!  I am still updating my personal tarpon blog daily through tarpon season as that is much easier for me to do, so if you want to keep up with it head on over to Islamorada Tarpon Fishing website.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk