Florida Keys Islamorada Inshore Fishing Report: Big Permit On The Flats.

I headed down to the Florida Keys and fished Islamorada in search of bonefish and permit. I checked out the weather the day before and the forecast was calling for hot weather and slick calm conditions. This was going to be a great day for finding big schools of bonefish in the backcountry as well as tailing permit.

Islamorada Sunrise

Today I am fishing with my good friend and fellow guide Capt. Randy Stallings. At the first spot of the day as soon as we set up and started poling, within less than five minutes we had a permit tailing 100’ off the bow of the boat. We had a bonefish fly on at the time, but there was no time to grab the other fly rod that had a crab fly set up for permit.

I was on the bow made the cast as soon as the permit tailed and had him follow the fly. I came tight on the fish, but then I realized it wasn’t the permit. A bonefish came out of no where and beat the permit to the fly. He was on for a few seconds and came off.

We had a few other shots at bonefish in the first sport, but it was really difficult to get a shot at them without the fish spoken. It was so calm and hot by 7:30 am that the fish were seeing the fly line in the air before it even hit the water. We tried leading the fish by 10’ and still very spooky.

The day went on looking for bonefish, but it just wasn’t happening. The fall all tackle tournament was going on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and I heard the bonefishing was tough for all three day’s. We decided to permit fish on the falling tide and sure enough it was the right call to make. At this point we decided to take out the spinning rods and use live crabs. This was going to help up us make longer cast at the spooky fish we were dealing with most of the day. First cast produced a solid 22 lbs permit and the skunk was off the boat. We went on catching a few other permits in the afternoon and called it a day. This fished ranged from 22 – 32 lbs. It was a great day of permit fishing in Islamorada.

Underway

Islamorada Permit

Whether it’s Biscayne Bay, Upper Keys, or Flamingo (Everglades National Park) give me a call and let me show you what South Florida Sport fishing as to offer.

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