Well it’s Summer again and Yes, it’s freakin’ hot! With this heat we have good things happen and unfortunately bad things as well. One the good side Permit fishing is on fire and on the bad side you pretty much can count on playing musical storms every afternoon. So if you see a dark cloud out there keep a good eye one it because it doesn’t take long to turn ugly. I’ve been doing quite a bit of Permit fishing down in the Lower Keys between Big Pine Key and Key West. The number of Permit is great ranging from the littlest runts to the big bruisers with some decent bonefish mixed in.Just as always any angler with a keen eye and a accurate can hook into one of these fish of a lifetime. The usual Shrimp, Crabs, and flies imitating these bite sized treats will seal the deal.
Fishing a little farther north up in the Everglades has been on fire with the Redfish bite. And on an even better note the Snook have actually started to resemble what we would call a bite since the freeze back in 2010. All the flats surrounding Flamingo and all the creek mouths of the Glades have been holding Snook of all size. I have been using a whole lot of live bait to make for a more productive day. For those of you who have fished with me know I always prefer to use artificials but since the freeze you can still catch a few on plugs but the live bait is by far the better choice. Standard easily caught live bait like Pinfish and Pilchards are what you need to be using. Shrimp will work but most of the shrimp found at any bait shop is going to be way too small this time of year… The Shrimp boats just can’t find the bigger one’s until it gets colder and the shrimp start to run again.
On another great note the typical 30-80 lb Tarpon are just about all over the place in the Glades. Depending on the wind will determine the best way to target them. But for this species you better set you alarm clocks really early to seal the deal. We do have days that they will still bite after 9 AM but I would estimate that’s only 10% of the time you will see that. If you get out there at first light you can almost 100% get some bites.
On the really flat days I’ve been spending a lot of time actually under the water diving for fun and also for Cockroaches, Florida Spiny Lobster that is. Now that the Mini Season craze is over things have gotten a lot quieter down here which is great. Summertime is the much slower paced days we all as guided get to take a deep breath and put the crazyness of Tarpon Season in our past. Well waters flat calm out there gotta get back out there and do some diving. Hope you all lke the pictures