It’s been a few weeks since my last Spacefish Report. I’ve been guiding down in Islamorada for most of the month of May. Tarpon action has been exceptionally slow so far with very few fish showing in the usual places. This has changed over the last three days. Tarpon are flooding into the bridges now, and live pilchards or mullet are working very well on the incoming tides around here. Small crabs are working best in the outgoing tides. Most of the tarpon are running 75 to 130-pounds. I saw a few bigger fish that are pushing the 180 pound mark on Sunday and Monday so there are some bigger fish around.
Mangrove snapper are biting very well. The close islands in the backcountry and the bridges are producing very good numbers of fish to about 15-inches. Live shrimp or live pilchards are the best baits to use for these tasty fish.
Yellowtail action on the reef has been really good, but these fish are running extremely small this May. You have to catch 10 fish to get 2 keepers.
Bonefish action has sucked. I have not even caught one yet while down here this year. Permit action has been on fire this year. We’ve landed really good numbers of fish to 15 pounds. I have never seen this many permit around the downtown area of Islamorada in 30 years of fishing here. Most of these are smaller fish in the 4 to 8 pound class but they are a blast to catch and we’ve had as many as 8 permit that we have landed on one day so far this trip.
I’m planning on trying to do it all again next year in May. It’s just a fun time to fish in this part of the world. Captain Justin and I will be running tarpon, kingfish, snook and redfish charters on the Space Coast in June so if you want to book a day with us please contact us at 321-505-8217 or book your trip on our websites secure reservations page at FinelineFishingCharters.com. Let’s go catch your next memory!
This report does nothing for Space Coast, we don’t care about you fishing in the Keys. So just don’t post. You cut and paste most of your reports up here in our area.