Summer in the Florida Keys
I want to tell you a story about a guy named Jason who I took out fishing recently. He wanted to catch a tarpon. The forecast said 100% chance of rain, but we decided to give it a go anyway. After an hour, we saw a few fish and we got lined up on them. Jason hooked a nice one about five minutes before it started just pouring rain! It was the kind of rain where you can’t see 100 feet in any direction. Anyway, it made for an incredible battle and I’m glad we got Jason his first tarpon - he definitely earned it!
Fishing has been pretty good overall. We had one of the best tarpon seasons we have had in a long time. Fingers crossed that the summer fishery is strong as well - that is my favorite time of year to target tarpon.
Most of the crowds and seasonal guides have left, so there is much more room to fish and much less pressure on the fish.
I absolutely love getting out back into the Everglades early in the morning this time 
of year. Schools of resident tarpon show up in good numbers and often stay put in those areas for weeks at a time. Having consistent fishing is a wonderful thing and makes for very happy customers as well as less stress on me as a captain not having to worry about where to go next all the time.
In addition to tarpon, we usually get a good run of snook in the ‘glades too as many of the small finger mullets start to run. Snook come out of the woodwork to spawn and are going nuts feeding on these guys, pushing the shorelines in big numbers. Working a barren beach shoreline in the Everglades with no one in sight is an awesome experience.
Out in the Gulf it is getting time for the permit spawn as well. Irma moved many of the fishing wrecks around so it may take a little while to find some of the spots where they are hanging again, but they will be out there somewhere for sure. On the right days you can spot big schools of these bad boys and they are usually fairly aggressive too - unlike other times where they can be one of the spookiest fish ever. As I said, summer time can be a great time to fish here in the Florida Keys. If you can stand the heat, the conditions are usually good and stable and it’s much less crowded then in the spring. Come see for yourself!
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Capt. Rick Stanczyk
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I fish a 1977 20’ SeaCraft open fisherman offering backcountry, gulf, and shallow reef trips catching everything from tarpon, permit, redfish, snook, sharks, cobia, goliath grouper, mackerel, snapper, and more. You can find me at Bud ‘n Mary’s (www.budnmarys.com) if I’m not out fishing, or call me at 305-747-6903 or email me at rick@seethefloridakeys.net