So far the fishing this summer has been great, for the most part I have been fishing the backcountry and doing a lot of of tarpon fishing. The past few months have been busy and the weather has been good overall. The tarpon fishing has been decent since April and we had a lot more tarpon around this May, then last year. The best time to fish them has been in the morning, but we’ve had some good afternoon and evening sessions too. We actually had 2 palalo worm hatches this year, one on the backside of the full moon in May and one just after the new moon in June. We found plenty of fish eating both times, but the bite was tough.
If the tarpon bite slows up later on in the day, we have been moving in a little shallower and targeting bonefish and permit. There have been a lot of bonefish around and the permit are starting to make their way back into the shallows. The bonefish bite has been the most consistent thing going the past few months. We have seen big schools of fish on the ocean side and gulf side. If you can get your fly or your jig out in front of these guys and move it the right way, they will usually eat it. The permit have been more on the Gulf side, but just this past week I saw a few swimming on the the ocean side with the tarpon strings. Hopefully we will start seeing a few more out front.
The offshore fishing has been slow so far this summer, there have been some dolphin around, but there’s been a lot of chickens and undersize fish. There have been a few skipjack tunas and small blakfins out in the deep too. The sargassum weeds have been super thick this year, and that has made it difficult to keep your lures clean while your trolling. The wrecks have been holding a variety of fish, like amberjacks, mutton snappers, groupers and other things. I like fishing the the bottom and middle of the water column with live baits, bonita strips and an assortment of jigs.
