Updated: Thursday, August 27, 2026 · Next update: Thursday, September 3, 2026
This Florida Keys fishing report covers late August, a hot, still, slightly lazy stretch that fishes well for anglers who work early and late. Light winds keep the wrecks and the reef line accessible most days, the oceanside water is gin clear, and bottom fishing is the most dependable game on the board. Permit over the oceanside wrecks are the lead target. Plan around the strongest tide and afternoon thunderstorms.
What’s Hitting
Permit are the marquee draw, holding over the wrecks in 60 to 120 feet and eating crabs on a slow drop. Mutton snapper are on the deeper reef edges and outside humps in 80 to 150 feet, best at first light and on the moon.
Yellowtail snapper are the bread and butter behind a chum slick on the patch reefs and reef line. Mangrove snapper stack on the bridges and channel edges after dark. Offshore, expect scattered mahi on the weedlines in 400 to 800 feet and blackfin tuna on the humps, with enough sailfish around to keep a bait in the spread.
Where to Find Them
Oceanside wrecks off Marathon and Islamorada are the permit and cobia zone. The patch reefs in 20 to 40 feet are where yellowtail live: anchor uptide, set a slick and let it work.
Seven Mile, Bahia Honda, Channel Two and Channel Five bridges hold mangrove snapper and tarpon on the moving tide. On the Gulf side, the backcountry basins and channels give up trout, small sharks and the occasional redfish on cooler mornings.
Tides & Conditions
Water runs upper 80s on the flats and low to mid 80s on the reef, with light and variable wind, a mid-morning sea breeze and afternoon thunderstorms building over the mainland.
Tidal flow is the whole ballgame on the bridges and patches: fish the strongest push and get off the water or under cover when afternoon cells roll through. Excellent oceanside visibility calls for longer leaders and quieter approaches on shallower spots.
Tackle & Tactics
- Wreck permit: a 20- to 30-pound spinning outfit, a 30- to 40-pound fluorocarbon leader and a live crab on a 3/0 circle. Position the boat so the crab falls naturally down the up-current face of the wreck; permit often eat within the first ten feet of the drop.
- Yellowtail: 15- to 20-pound braid, 15-pound fluoro, a small hook and ballyhoo or shrimp drifted back unweighted in the chum.
- Mutton snapper: a whole ballyhoo or a live pinfish on the bottom with a long fluorocarbon leader.
Bring plenty of chum; the yellowtail bite builds over an hour, not a minute.
Local Intel This Week
Launch at Founders Park in Islamorada, the Marathon city ramp at 33rd Street, Sunshine Key and Big Pine, or Murray E. Nelson Government Center in Key Largo. Bahia Honda State Park gives shore anglers the old bridge and the channel.
Fish concentrate on deeper wrecks and outside reef edges as the water warms, with shallow patches best in the first two hours of light. Much of this water sits inside the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, and snapper, grouper and permit carry seasonal and area-specific rules. Check current FWC and federal regulations and seasons before keeping fish.
This Week’s Tip
When a permit refuses your crab, do not change the crab; change the drift. Nine times out of ten the fish sees the leader swing unnaturally in the current. Reset so the bait falls straight down the face of the structure with no belly in the line, and that same fish often eats on the next drop.
Planning a trip to Florida Keys?
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