We did a bit of september florida keys shark fishing today in the backcountry of Islamorada. Ran to the ‘flamingo’ area which is an hour or so from where we depart in islamorada. We had a cooler full of mullet from yesterday afternoon that were iced down good which provide perfect bait for sharks and other large predators. The wind was north in the AM and we fished a channel where we had tarpon action the morning before. With that wind direction though the tarpon were not happy. We started to chum a bit with our mullet and had a couple baits on the bottom. Soon enough we had hooked a nice size lemon shark, unfortunately he broke us off. We did end up catching 2 more nice size lemons of 100 lbs or so, plus a nice 40 lb blacktip. We did some other stuff the rest of the day, and did try again in the afternoon in another channel which we again saw tarpon in though no activity from them and had another blacktip shark.
Islamorada blacktip shark fishing can be good year round. They are very common in the gulf, with many large ones showing up in the fall and throughout the winter along with the spanish mackerel in the gulf. You can also catch them in the spring and summer. As long as the water temperatures aren’t too frigid though, they are a blast and with the right conditions while spanish mackerel fishing, they give a powerful fight and often jump and put on quite a show. Pound for pound they are one of the toughest fighting sharks.
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903
rick@islamoradasharkfishing.com
