Month: July 2013

The july key largo backcountry fishing is as hot as the temperature!  That is really saying something!  We’ve had good action with the snook this week, around many of the islands and mangrove-laden shorelines.  Not a lot of huge fish but good rod benders with a few double-digit sized fish mixed in.  They’ve been eating decent sized shrimp fairly well which have been around, as well as pinfish and pilchards.  Tarpon are still going strong too.  I’ve caught them almost every day and the key has been getting out EARLY to catch fresh live mullet.  You have to scout and look around for them, and you may even take a couple hours just catching bait.
But the payoff has been worth it, we’ve been hooking 4-8 fish a day the last week.  Early in the morning with the falling tide until about 10:00 has been stellar, and then again in the afternoon in the start of the incoming.  For dinner fare mangrove snapper fishing has been good as well as a few seatrout in the bays.  Sharks have been plentiful too.  We caught blacktips every day too as well as a few lemons, bulls, and even a roaming hammerhead one day!  As we get nearer to fall look for the redfish to get into some of the deeper areas where I usually fish them, including the runoffs and creek mouths.

Well the key largo backcountry fishing has been holding steady in July.  There were still plenty of tarpon to be found around flamingo which is a little run from Key Largo but that is where the fish are.  We’ve been having luck finding mullet for bait back there and soaking them in the channels for nice size 40-80 lb tarpon.  The two days before I left for vacation before last weekend we caught 8 out of 14 tarpon – incredible!  Mostly residents not the huge spawning migrators, but still lots of fun.  There has been a handful of snook too drifting pinfish or jigging big shrimp around the islands or off the mainland.  A few reds are around too, mostly in the real skinny water but can be found on the right tides around the islands and moats and such.  We’ve also had plenty of trout, snappers, ladyfish, that kind of thing.  Big sharks such as bull and lemons can be found as well as some blacktips for big rod bending action.  Today we got this big smoker king 35 lbs while we were tarpon/shark fishing a channel, pretty unusual catch!  If your thinking of fishing key largo in july give me a ring, fishing is still productive!