Fishing Islamorada in August has been a good choice the last several years. Tarpon are usually still around and there isn’t near as much pressure on them as during high season. Usually winds are light and conditions are good to catch the silver king. We usually depart on our everglades tarpon fishing charters early in the dark to get back there by daybreak. This makes catching bait much easier and usually gives you a much better hour of fishing versus leaving at a later time. You can often sneak in on hungry packs of tarpon that will eat anything that hits the water for that first hour or so of morning time! This year so far the numbers of fish aren’t quite what they were the last few years going into this time of year. Fishing has been OK for tarpon this summer – we’ve been catching them most days, though often having to work hard just for a handful of shots. The last week or so we’ve caught them every trip except one, and most days have been landing a couple. We haven’t had the ‘ace in the hole’ where you can go to a certain spot and practically guarantee a bite which is what was often the case last year. The fish have been moving around a lot and not staying put, so sometimes you don’t get a bite until your second or third move. Though they have been around so usually it does come! Other than tarpon the snook fishing in the summer is usually pretty good too. I haven’t done much of it as of late, though when the winds die out they are usually getting very happy as the water cleans up and bait makes its way up and down the mainland shorelines and into the creeks. We often get some larger snook off the beaches and the occasional goliath grouper or cobia. On a recent trip we landed this huge 350 lb goliath grouper which was a treat! Sharks are always in the mix too – black tips, lemons, bulls, hammerheads – which is nice to keep the action going. I think we will get another good push of tarpon before we get into the fall, which by the way can also be a great time to fish when the fall bait run starts to occur! Give me a shout if you are wanting to get out there.
