Florida Keys Fishing: Tarpon Bites, Bonefish, and Offshore Mahi Action
This is Artificial Lure with your Florida Keys and Miami fishing report.
We’ll start with conditions. Around the Upper and Middle Keys into Biscayne Bay, we’ve got a light east to southeast breeze this morning, building to 10–15 knots by afternoon. Seas outside the reef are running 2–3 feet, with inshore waters mostly a light chop. Humidity’s high and temps are topping out in the mid to upper 80s, feeling warmer on the flats. Sunrise is right around 6:30 a.m., sunset close to 8:00 p.m., giving you a nice long window to work the tides.
Tides today on the ocean side of the Upper Keys feature an early morning incoming, peaking mid‑morning, then falling through the afternoon. In Biscayne Bay and around Government Cut, expect a similar pattern but delayed by roughly an hour. That morning push has been key for bonefish and permit on the flats, while the later part of the falling tide has turned on the snapper and tarpon around deeper cuts and bridges.
Inshore and nearshore action has been solid. Around Key Largo and Islamorada, guides have been reporting steady numbers of mangrove snapper on patch reefs and channel edges, with a mix of yellowtail and the odd mutton. Tarpon are still very much in play along the ocean side bridges—Seven Mile, Channel 2, Channel 5—and also in Government Cut and Haulover Inlet off Miami. Most boats are jumping multiple fish in the evenings if they hit the tide right. On the flats, bonefish numbers have been good on the warmer low‑water stages with fish sliding up as soon as the sun gets some height.
Offshore, boats running out from Islamorada, Marathon, and Key Largo have been picking at dolphin (mahi) in 400–800 feet, with most fish schoolie size and a few gaffers mixed in. A couple of blackfin tuna have been taken on the humps early and late, and there are still sailfish around the color changes if you put in the time. Out of Miami, kite fishermen and trollers have been finding scattered dolphin offshore and a few kings and blackfin along the reef line.
Best baits and lures:
– For tarpon, live mullet, crabs, and big pilchards are the ticket around the bridges and inlets. At night, slow‑trolled or drifted live baits are out‑producing artificials, but big soft plastics on heavy jig heads and black‑and‑purple swimming plugs will get bit.
– For snapper, nothing beats small live pilchards, pinfish, or fresh‑cut baits on light leaders. Chumming with ground chum and glass minnows will pull fish off the structure.
– On the flats, bonefish have been eating live shrimp, small crabs, and for the fly crowd, tan and olive shrimp patterns and small, sparsely dressed crabs. Spin anglers should throw light jigs tipped with shrimp or little jerk shads in natural colors.
– Offshore mahi are jumping on small trolling feathers, skirted ballyhoo, and bright‑colored jigs. Keep a spinning rod rigged with a small chunk bait or bucktail to pitch at followers.
A couple of hotspots to circle on your chart:
First, the Channel 2 and Channel 5 bridge complexes between Islamorada and Marathon—fish the shadow lines on a moving tide for tarpon, plus mangrove snapper and the occasional cobia hugging the pilings.
Second, out of Miami, work the reef edge from Fowey Rocks up to Government Cut in 80–150 feet, slow‑trolling live baits or drifting pilchards. That stretch has been giving up kings, sails, and solid mixed bag reef action when the current’s right.
Overall fish activity is best at first light and again late afternoon into dark, especially when that lines up with a good moving tide. Midday can still produce on the offshore bite and deeper channels, but if you’re hunting bones, permit, or tarpon, plan your prime effort around those low‑light windows and tide changes.
That’s the rundown from Artificial Lure—thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss the next report.
This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.
Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn
