Early Summer Keys: Tarpon, Permit, and Perfect Tides

Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your Keys fishing report. We’re sitting on a classic early-summer pattern. Light southeast breeze around 5–10 knots, humid but stable, with only a small chance of passing showers. According to the National Weather Service marine outlook, seas are running 1–2 feet nearshore, maybe 2–3 out past the reef, so just about anybody can get out comfortably. Winds should freshen a bit this afternoon with the sea breeze, then lay back down overnight. Sunrise is right around 6:35 a.m., with sunset close to 8:15 p.m., giving you a long, bright day to work the edges. First light and the last hour before dark are still your money windows, especially up on the flats and around the mangrove shorelines. Tides today are on a moderate cycle. Near Islamorada and Marathon, we’ve got a higher high before mid-morning, easing into a midafternoon low. Around Key West, high is a touch later, but the same general pattern: a healthy incoming around dawn, draining through early afternoon. That falling water is going to stack bait and predators in the channels and at the mouths of creeks. Inshore, the bite’s been lively. Local guides out of Islamorada have been putting clients on good numbers of **tarpon** at the bridges on the early incoming and the first of the outgoing. Live mullet, crabs, and big shrimp drifted back in the shadow lines have all produced, with a few fish still pushing triple digits. If you’re throwing artificials, work 5–7" soft-plastic paddletails in natural mullet or pearl on a stout jig head, or slow-roll big swimbaits right along the current seams. The **flats** are waking up early. Guides poling the oceanside flats from Key Largo to Big Pine report laid-up **tarpon**, schools of **bonefish**, and tailing **permit** on the higher stages. For bones, small tan or olive shrimp patterns and light jigs are doing the trick; for permit, bring a well-presented live crab or a realistic crab fly. Keep your casts low and your footsteps softer. Backcountry up in Florida Bay and around the mangrove islands is holding plenty of **snook**, **redfish**, and **mangrove snapper**. Look for moving water on the falling tide, especially where small creeks dump into larger bays. Live pilchards, finger mullet, and shrimp under a popping cork are steady producers. On artificials, throw gold spoons, 3–4" paddletails in new penny or root beer, and topwaters at first light for explosive strikes. Offshore, boats running out of Marathon and Key West have been finding solid **dolphin (mahi)** in that 400–800 foot range. Weedlines and floating debris are key; once you find the life, you’ll often find birds and schoolies with a few gaffers mixed in. Ballyhoo, squid strips, and small trolling lures in blue/white, pink, or green/yellow have all been getting bit. Keep a spinning rod rigged with a chunk bait or bucktail to pick off followers when the spread hooks up. On the reef edge, **yellowtail snapper** fishing has stayed strong. Anchor in 60–90 feet, get a consistent chum slick going, and free-line small pieces of cut bait or shrimp on light tackle. Add a little split shot if the current is ripping. Mixed in, expect mutton snapper and the occasional grouper along the bottom if you’re soaking live pinfish or ballyhoo on heavier gear. For a couple of hot spots: - **Seven Mile Bridge area**: Great mix of tarpon early and late, with mangrove snapper and the occasional grouper tight to structure on the slower parts of the tide. - **Marquesas Keys west of Key West**: When weather allows, that ring of islands is holding everything from permit on the flats to snappers and grouper in the surrounding channels and patch reefs. Best all-around baits right now: live pilchards, mullet, shrimp, and small crabs. Best artificials: bone-colored and mullet-pattern topwaters at dawn, gold spoons over grass, and natural-hued soft plastics on light jig heads when the sun gets up. That’s your Florida Keys rundown from Artificial Lure. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a 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