Early Summer Keys Bite: Low Light and Moving Tide Magic

This is Artificial Lure checking in with your South Florida fishing report for the waters in and around the Florida Keys and Miami. We’re sitting on a classic early-summer pattern right now. Light southeast breeze in the morning building to a moderate onshore wind by midday, with air temps running in the mid to upper 80s and that muggy Keys humidity hanging around. Skies are partly cloudy with the usual chance of a passing shower or quick boomers in the afternoon sea-breeze. Nearshore water temps are sitting in the low 80s, which has the fish plenty active at the edges of the flats and along the reef. Around the upper Keys and Biscayne Bay, low light has been money: early morning and last couple hours before dark. Tides around the Keys and Miami area are giving you a nice moving window at dawn and again late afternoon, with an incoming push lining up with sunrise in many of the bridges and cuts, then switching to a draining tide mid-morning. Around the ocean side bridges and the south end of Biscayne Bay, that first hour of incoming has been the sweet spot. Sunrise is just after six in the morning and sunset a little after eight in the evening, so you’ve got long feeding windows on both ends of the day. Plan your serious effort around those changes of light and tide. Offshore out of Key Largo down through Islamorada, the bluewater bite has been steady. Boats working weedlines and color changes have been putting mahi in the box, mostly schoolies with a few nicer gaffers mixed in. The usual bright trolling skirts, small feathers, and rigged ballyhoo have been doing work. Keep a spinning rod ready with a small bucktail or flashy jig for when the school pops up behind the boat. On the reef edge and patches in 40–80 feet, yellowtail and mangrove snapper have been chewing, especially on the evening bite. Light chum, small hooks, and cut baits or shrimp are the ticket. A few muttons have been coming off the deeper edges on live pinfish and ballyhoo. Inshore around Miami and Biscayne Bay, seatrout, mangrove snapper, and jacks have been active along channel edges and structure. Small pilchards and shrimp under a popping cork are hard to beat. Artificial guys are doing well with 3–4 inch paddle tails in natural greenback or white on 1/8 to 1/4 ounce jigheads. The backcountry of the upper Keys and south Biscayne has been giving up snook and a few redfish tight to the mangroves on the higher stages of the tide. Topwater walkers at first light, then switching to soft plastics and live bait once the sun gets up, have been producing. Don’t overlook small gold spoons and weedless jerkbaits for covering water. Tarpon are still very much in the mix. Around the bridges at Channel 2, Channel 5, and Long Key, as well as Government Cut and Haulover in Miami, fish are rolling and laid up early and late. Live crabs and mullet are still your prime baits. For artificials, big soft-plastic swimbaits and heavy jigs swung in the current have been getting eaten when the traffic isn’t too crazy. A few local hot spots to put on your list: - The Islamorada bridge stretches and nearby flats: early-morning tarpon, snook, and mangrove snapper on live baits and topwaters. - Biscayne Bay’s western shoreline and grass flats just south of Key Biscayne: good mixed-bag of trout, snapper, jacks, with shots at bonefish on the clearer, calmer mornings. Best overall bets right now: - **Live bait:** pilchards, shrimp, small pinfish, and crabs for tarpon. - **Lures:** topwater walkers at dawn, 3–5 inch paddle tails in natural baitfish colors, small bucktails for mahi, gold spoons and light jigs for inshore. That’s the word from the water 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