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

Islamorada Permit

Islamorada Permit

Islamorada Permit

Islamorada Permit

Islamorada Permit

Islamorada Permit

Islamorada Permit

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.

-Capt. Raul Montoro

www.biscaynebayfishing.com

Like I mentioned in my previous report, I had a slow week and took advantage of boat repairs and fixing tackle. I had a few hours to burn yesterday and I had a great incoming tide in the afternoon so I decided to go look for some permit. I was fishing alone and permit fishing is not something that is easy to do when you don’t have someone to pole you around and set you up for the right shot.

Biscayne Bay Sunrise

What you want to do is set up on the edge of one of your favorite permit banks and wait for them to come to you. I do this regardless when I’m with customers, but the difference is when I’m poling I can position the boat in different angles and work the bank better. Alone you’re sitting in one spot and hope the permit get close enough to you in order to make the right presentation.

Biscayne Bay Permit

Since I was fishing alone I decided to cast live crabs at them instead of fly fishing. I always like to have two rods ready, one with a shrimp or a small buck tail jig and another rod with a crab. You never know what you’re going to encounter so being ready is the key. Within minutes of staking out the boat and getting my rods ready, hear come a group of big yellow Jacks swimming off the edge of the flat. I casted my shrimp in front of the school and I was on instantly. A few other schools came by and I caught several up to 12 lbs.  As I was releasing one of the yellow Jacks a group of permit were working there way up the edge nice and slow. This gave me plenty of time to grab the crab rod and make a cast at the lead fish. The permit ate the crab and it was game on! This is where it can get tricky permit fishing alone. The fish took me straight into the channel and burning off line really fast. I always make sure to have a quick release to my push pole in case I have to chase the fish down, this way you leave your pole behind and you can always come back for it. After about 10 minutes I had a nice 18 lbs permit too the boat. I took some photos which are not easy to do when you’re fishing alone, but I managed to take a few that came out pretty good.

Biscayne Bay Permit

I have some days still open in October so give me a call and let me put you on some great sport fishing Miami Biscayne Bay has to offer.

-Capt. Raul Montoro

www.biscaynebayfishing.com

I had a slow Week this week so I had plenty of time to get some fishing done on my own, get some repairs done, and give a the boat a good wash down.

Miami Sunrise

I Fished on Thursday and didn’t chase the usual bonefish and permit, instead I wanted to catch some fish for the freezer. I headed out alone and my plan was to load up on bait and hit some of the several wrecks I have in Biscayne Bay.

Biscayne Bay Mutton Snapper

It was Glass Calm on Thursday morning and finding bait was no problem. Two throws with the cast net and I had the live well blacked out. Spot number one was loaded and I had non stop action for two hours catching mutton snappers, mangrove snappers, and gag groupers. This is the time of year where I do really well with muttons snappers. Plenty of live bait (pilchards) is the key to get them going, and when you start seeing them do back flips out of the water, you know it’s game on! Sometimes we even whip out the fly rod and catch muttons up to 10 lbs, if you never done this before it’s a blast. Most of the groupers where under slot, but that will change once we start getting some cold fronts moving through. The muttons ranged from 5 to 10 lbs and lost a few others that were in the 12 lbs range and all this in 6’ of water.

Biscayne Bay Mutton Snapper

Biscayne Bay Mutton Snapper

I’ll be back on the water this week and I’ll keep you posted on what’s going on. I also have some availability this month and the fishing is going to get better through out the fall. Give me a call and let’s go fishing.

Capt. Raul Montoro

www.biscaynebayfishing.com

Just a few pictures that Sam Root From Salty Shore www.saltyshores.com took with me last week thaks Sam.

I was on the water four days this past week and the fishing was up and down. I new that the morning tides were not going to be the best with high water, overcast skies, and your occasional rain shower, this was going to make fishing a little tough.  

On Wednesday we managed a couple of bonefish once the sun came out and saw plenty of fish through out the day, but the overcast skies made fishing tough .

Bonefish

Thursday I had photographer Sam Root from Salty Shores www.saltyshores.com and we finally got our schedules together and got a chance to go fishing. Our goal was to target bonefish and permit and try to get some cool shots. Like the day before I new fishing was going to be tough, but we went for it anyways. It rained for a couple of hours in the morning and again with the high water and the day before the full moon it was a little frustrating. We finally had a window of sunlight for a good hour and a half and we managed two bonefish and didn’t se much more the rest of the day.

Bonefish

Friday I had Jon, Phil, and Brian Otis three brothers from Canada for the next couple of days. We fished Biscayne Bay and it was glass calm and sunny skies all day. Knowing that the bone fishing and the permit fishing was slow the past couple days, I decided to load up on some live bait and start off the morning snook fishing. There were some snook around but stayed pretty tight under the trees and wouldn’t come out even while live chumming. We caught plenty of mangrove snappers and one snook to start off the morning. We then tried bone fishing for a couple of hours and again slow like the past three days. We then managed a nice shark and lost a big mystery fish off a channel edge and by this time we had to head in, another slow day in the bay.

Saturday I had Jon, Phil, and Brian again, but this time we headed to Flamingo (Everglades National Park) knowing that the day before the bay was slow. I’m glad I convinced them to make the drive because we had a pretty awesome day considering the full moon and all. We managed 10 snook, 5 redfish, 1 black drum, 53 trout, a lemon shark and a mixed bag of other species. We did all this on artificial baits except for the lemon shark. I was supposed to fish them again on Sunday, but something came up and they couldn’t make it. I know Jon had a great time and he is planning another trip with the boys in December and Brian is already making plans on bringing some clients down for some business/fishing tip.

Even though we had a tough week in Biscayne Bay due to the weather we still managed to catch some fish. This week I expect the fishing to get better and I have some days open. So if you want to book a trip and go for some bonefish and permit or hit the glades for some redfish and snook give me a call.

 -Capt. Raul Montoro