Early Summer Salt: Upper Keys to Miami - Bones, Tarpon, and Moving Water

Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your South Florida salt report from the Upper Keys down toward Miami. We’ve got a classic early-summer pattern setting up. Light southeast breeze early, building to 10–15 knots by afternoon, with a chance of those pop-up thunderstorms over the bay and mainland. Humidity’s up, air temps running mid‑70s at first light, pushing into the high 80s by midday. Seas outside the reef are a light chop, a little tighter where that wind pushes against the tide. Sunrise is right around six‑fifteen this morning, sunset about eight‑fifteen this evening, so you’ve got nice long low‑light windows. Those first two hours after sunrise and the last two before sunset are your money shots, especially with the heat driving fish deeper by midday. Tides around the Upper Keys and Biscayne Bay are on a moderate cycle. Expect an incoming tide mid‑morning pushing clean ocean water over the flats, then an afternoon fall that’ll drain the mangroves and potholes. Fish that moving water—don’t waste time on slack. Inshore, the flats game has been strong. Guides out of Islamorada and Key Largo are reporting good bonefish numbers on the oceanside flats on the flood, with several boats seeing half‑a‑dozen shots and putting two to three fish in the boat on a tide. Permit have been cruising the edges and deeper flats; not big schools, but enough singles and pairs to keep you honest. Tarpon are still around the bridges and deep channels, but they’re getting educated—figure a hookup or two if you stick with it. Around Miami and Biscayne Bay, the night and predawn bridge bite has been producing tarpon and snook, with a mix of jack crevalle and the odd mangrove snapper. Offshore, charter captains off the Keys have been plugging away at schoolie mahi, blackfin tuna around the humps, and a few sailfish for boats putting in the time on the edge. Best lures and baits right now: - For bones and permit: small skimmer jigs and flats jigs in shrimp or crab patterns, 1/8 to 1/4 oz; live shrimp and small blue crabs if you’re soaking bait. - For tarpon: 5–7 inch soft plastics on a heavy jighead, silver or greenback patterns, plus big swimbaits slow‑rolled in the shadow lines; live mullet or crabs still king. - For snook and jacks: white or chartreuse bucktail jigs, paddle‑tail swimbaits, and topwater plugs at first light. - Offshore: small feather skirts, trolling plugs, and chunked ballyhoo for mahi and tuna. A couple of hot spots to circle: - The channels and flats around Channel 5 and Channel 2 bridges—tarpon at dawn and dusk, plus mixed snapper on the edges during moving water. - Biscayne Bay oceanside flats south of Key Biscayne down toward Elliott Key—bones on the higher water and cruising permit on the drops. Fish early, fish late, follow that moving tide, and keep an eye on the sky for those afternoon boomers. 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