9/4/12 September Islamorada Fishing in the backcountry

Islamorada fishing in September has started off great in the backcountry.  The water is still fairly cool from all the rain/wind of hurricane Isaac.  The water for the most parts in areas around flamingo is not too grassy and very fishable.  Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti a few days ago had a great day, fishing with Ron Taylor and family.  They caught 40 redfish up to 8 lbs, 6 snook, and a couple small tarpon.  He also fished yesterday with young Justin Block and father for some Islamorada flats fishing.  Justin caught his first bonefish in the morning.  They saw a fair number of others, as well as a few small tarpon and permit.  Capt. Bill Bassett this morning also reported good redfishing, catching 20 of them, as well as 2 snook and one small tarpon.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk reported good fishing around some islands fishing in the florida keys backcountry the last 2 days.  They caught plenty of mangrove snapper, abou t 15 snook each day, a small goliath grouper, and a few small redfish.  Most this fishing has been done with shrimp and on artificial GULP shrimps.  Fishing in Flamingo should stay decent especially if the water temps stay a little cooler, early morning will likely be your best bet to ensure that!

8/9/12 Big Snook for some young kids

Kurt fished with his 2 sons, Kylan (12) and Ian (9) with Capt. Mike Bassett.  They fished 2 days yesterday and today, 8/9/12.  in two days they caught 2 nice snook, 11 and 6 lb, a 30 lb bull shark, a 6 lb trout, lots of redfish, a black drum, sheeps head, and jacks and snappers to eat.  They were down from VA and had lots of fun!  Capt. Rick Stanczyk reported good fishing on the edge of the gulf today, with a mix of trout, snapper, ladyfish, spanish mackerel, and a couple pompano!  We then chunked them up in some hold and caught a couple big goliaths, 2 big sawfish, a lemon and black tip shark, and got rocked up by some other goliaths, fun day of rod bending!

7/14/12 Bonefish, snook, sea monsters, backcountry!

Captain Vinnie Biondoletti reported the last couple days for this islamorada fishing report...

Bob Casey senior caught this nice bonefish on fly. He was fishing with his son Bob Jr. He also hooked another bonefish this morning. Fishing was quite good we saw a dozen groups of fish on a half day. 

More bone fishing this morning with Bob Casey senior and Jr. Saw lots of tailing fish back in the bay. Bob Jr. Managed to hook up on fly. He brought a nice 8 pound fish boat side. No pictures of this fish it fell off while we were trying to get it in the boat. We also had several groups of permit turn down our fly presentations. All in all another great day on the flats. 

Sara Michael caught her first snook today with  Capt. Bob Reineman.  They fished the backcountry around Flamingo.  Snook fishing in the everglades!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk had Jason and crew down for some fishing in the backcountry today.  We caught plenty of trout, mangrove snappers, and some ladyfish in the bays early.  We fished some out off of east cape later for bigger stuff, and caught 3 big sea monsters, a couple smaller sharks, and jumped a 30 lb tarpon and had one other flash a pinfish.  Great day of fishing in the florida keys!

6/3/12 Backcountry fishing report and florida keys tarpon fishing

Well summer feels like it is here things sure are getting hot now.  We've still been having some crazy weather patterns though the last few days have been absolutely gorgeous.  Before that we had a couple days of solid rain again coming out of the tropics.  On 6/3/12 I got back in the backcountry fishing with Mickey, Mike, and Mike for some backcountry fishing.  The day before we had caught loads of trout, ladyfish, and a few snappers.  Had tried islamorada tarpon fishing for a little while but action fishing was preferred!  On this day we started out way back in the everglades.  First fish of the day was a large snook of 20+ lbs!  Great way to start. We then caught 3 big sea monsters for something large for the boys to pull on.  One of them drug us a mile inshore.  We also had a hammerhead shark eat a pinfish off the surface while getting pulled around which was a cool sight to see.  Tarpon were rolling in the area but we did not have any bites out of them.  After this we hit some high tide shoreline spots and found some nice redfish, and also caught half a dozen black drum which is unusual for this time of year, as well as another snook!  Great day of family fishing in the florida keys!

Capt. Skip Nielsen had been reported good tarpon action on mullet last week with several multiple fish days, though finding the mullet is getting tougher and tougher.  Some bites on the falling tide in the afternoons have also come on crabs, Capt. Perry Scuderi had a nice fish the other afternoon on a crab. Capt. Mike Bassett also reported some snook action in the everglades on live pilchards. The falling tide will be extending nicely into the evening trip hours throughout this week, so it would be a good time to plan a night tarpon fishing trip in islamorada!

5/21/12 Flats fishing in Islamorada

Been very busy here as of 5/21/12 and lots of rain around so have not been taking pictures and keeping up with reports - sorry guys!  Last week I had Kenny Johnston here flats fishing in Islamorada from across the pond.  We fished two full days in the islamorada backcountry fishing.  Day 1 we started around flamingo.  We got into a decent snook bite catching 10 or so snook up to 8 lbs, lost the first 1 which was a nice fish likely over 10 lbs into the trees.  Lucky for the fish as a large bull shark was after him!  We also caught a couple redfish there and off one other tree nearby, as well as lots of mangrove snappers.  The wind kicked up so we made our way back towards Islamorada and found a nice trout mud on the way home.  Plenty of trout with several slot size fish mixed in.  A big mullet mud was on a flat nearby so we caught a few live mullets and decided to give the tarpon a shot near home for the last hour.  We caught a couple small sharks early, and put our last mullet out on the bottom.  I reeled up the bait to check it after 15 minutes, put it back out, and within a minute the line zipped off and a nice 60 lb tarpon was airborne and hooked!  Kenny caught him in about 30 minutes to complete his backcountry slam for the day!  Great to catch an afternoon tarpon in islamorada!  Day 2 we ran back towards the cape area and found a nice school of redfish up on the flats.  We caught probably 15 of those, then loaded up with ladyfish in one of the nearby channels.  We caught a small shark nearby, and then kept heading back towards the cape.  Kenny wanted something big so we put the ladyfish on the bottom in one of the channels.  Caught 2 mud marlin, one small one of 40 lbs, and another that was likely 200-250 lbs!  Great options here fishing in the florida keys!  Capt. Jim Willcox also reported getting a backcountry slam - snook, reds, and a tarpon, running deep into the glades off the northwest cape.  Capt. Jeff Beeler did well on the redfish with myself in a group trip several days ago as well as some shots at tarpon early in the morning, some nice trout and snappers, and a shark.  Capt. Mike Bassett got a couple tarpon in the afternoon the other day as well on live mullets drifting the oceanside bridges.  Capt. Dave Butler also snuck out after the rain the other day and caught a big tarpon as well as a couple redfish!

As of late the tarpon fishing here has been picking up a bit, a lot of fish around locally however still not many in the backcountry.  The evening trips have been giving more shots at fish, some have been eating crabs as well.  We had bites on crabs early in the evening the last 2 nights, as well as mullet.  We do have falling tides here till near dark this next week, so the fishing will hopefully be good the next several evenings!  Get ou there on a night tarpon fishing islamorada trip!