6/24/18 June Backcountry Fishing Report update

Sorry for the lack of blog updates but we've been having a few issues with the blog as of late.  Every time I've tried to do a fishing report it would end up crashing on me and I'd lose all my work so I had gotten frustrated with it.  I've been very busy as of late with fishing, life, new baby, etc... so anyways it's been tough.  Things are slowing down a little now and I'm giving it another go so hopefully things will work OK.  We may try to get the blog on a new platform soon that is a little more up-to-date, mobile friendly, etc... Anyways we are into June and fishing has been stellar as of late.  I'm mostly a tarpon guy so that's my focus in the spring and summer.  Overall I will say we've had a good year, we had a very early start with the tarpon and things were good early.  Fishing got a little tougher in later May and early June.  Then the last several weeks I've been really having good fishing.  But I've been fishing different areas and getting up very early to make that happen but it's been paying off.  The last couple weeks we've caught a lot of tarpon with as many as nine in a day it's truly been incredible.  Also some really big summer time spawning snook have been making their appearance too.  I've caught a few in the 15 lb range which are very nice fish!  As of late though the last week it seems we are getting into our more traditional summer time routine with more fish showing up in the usual summer time channels and areas.  We had very good days with the tarpon the last couple days, yesterday I actually had struck out on my further run as the bait dried up in that area.  But we were able to recover and caught five nice tarpon on the way home in the last 2 hours.  I imagine the tarpon bite will stay good through July and it's my favorite time of year for tarpon fishing in the Florida Keys for sure.  Very little pressure on the fish and lots of them, with stable weather conditions.  What more could you ask for!  Other than tarpon we've had some nice triple tails floating along in the near gulf bays as well.  They've been fun and you can often get a shot or two at them while waiting for tarpon or sharks to bite.  We had a few decent days with snook in the last few weeks as well catching them on live pilchards or pinfish.  There has also been some nice trout and mangrove snapper in the bays as well which you can get on shrimp, cut bait, or even artificials.  Bonefish fishing has gotten very good this year.  Several guides have had some great days 'stake up' fishing where they put baits out on the flat and sit and wait for them to come along.  Capt. Bill Bassett has been doing a lot of that and had really good luck.  He got a nice 7 lber though sight fishing yesterday that was really cool, and a nice tarpon in the afternoon.  Capt. Jim Willcox today had some nice trout and jack crevelle on top waters fishing in the near gulf and everglades.  Capt. Perry Scuderi had a nice permit last week.  Capt. Skip Nielsen had a variety of big fish with some nice goliath groupers, tarpon, big sharks including a hammerhead, and others.  Capt. Chris Daly and Capt. Mike Bassett had some nice snook in the last few days.  Capt. Al Polofsky had a nice SLAM last week with a permit, bonefish, and tarpon for his angler.  Capt. Mark Hlis has had very good fly fishing for tarpon, going 14 or more trips in a row with catching at least one tarpon each time!  The summer time snook bite has been pretty good and should continue to be through July.  Fishing the shorelines of the everglades can be very producitve especially early in the morning.  Of course wear your long pants as the horse flies are bad this time of year.  We're hoping to get some permit showing up in the gulf soon for the summer time.  Unfortunately a lot of the structure where they use to congregate got moved around due to IRMA, but we hope with some investigative work we'll find some new areas they like in the next couple months.  It's that time of year where anything can happen with fishing, conditions are generally good with the calm weather and the water cleans up very nicely.  Full days give you the time to make the further runs to better fishing.  Give us a call and get on the hot bite!  Please check out my personal blog if you are interested in the summe time tarpon bite at islamorada tarpon fishing.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

P.S. Also please note we normally do not boat tarpon for pictures, but smaller fish like the ones pictured under 40 inches you are allowed to temporarily possess for pictures.  We try to make sure not to drop them or wipe off any excess slime, and release them quickly and healthily for next time.