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Islamorada Fishing Report: Mullet Run, Tarpon, Snook and More on a High Tide Day
Published 7 months, 3 weeks ago
Description
This is Artificial Lure, bringing you today’s fresh fishing report for Islamorada, Florida, the Sport Fishing Capital of the World, right here on Wednesday, September 10th, 2025.
We started the morning with a balmy sunrise at 7:05 AM and we’ll have daylight running until 7:33 PM, offering over twelve hours to wet a line. Weather’s classic Florida Keys: southerly winds around 8 knots, air temp in the low 80s at dawn, climbing to the high 80s by late afternoon, with a 30% shot at a passing shower midafternoon. Humidity is up, but breezes kept the bugs and heat manageable through most of the early bite.
Now, tidal action’s lively and setting the rhythm for the bite. According to Islamorada tide charts, we had a high tide just before sunrise at 4:16 AM, a low tide mid-morning at 10:18 AM, another high at 4:03 PM, and wrapping up with low tide at 10:19 PM. Tidal coefficient today is swinging high, up to 84 by midday and peaking at 90 toward dusk, meaning big water movement, good current, and ideal conditions for predators to feed and for anglers chasing action. Early incoming and late outgoing tides are definitely your best windows.
Out on the water, the mullet run is still on and things are heating up. This week saw plentiful catches of snook, tarpon, mangrove snapper, and big jacks marauding the bait pods. Guides and locals reported solid numbers of slot-size snook off the channels near Indian Key Fill and Whale Harbor Bridge, especially with live pilchards and cut mullet drifted with the current. Tarpon rolled early in backcountry waters—Bogie Channel and around Channel 2 Bridge are holding rolling silver kings in the dusk and dawn hours. Several fish over 70 pounds were hooked and two confirmed landed yesterday evening between 7 and 8 PM.
Mangrove snapper are thick over the patch reefs and bridge pilings, with plenty of 12–16 inch keepers. Pinfish and shrimp on knocker rigs or jigheads did real work for folks fishing the edges of the boat channels and the old bascule bridge remnants. A few keeper mutton snapper were hauled up from the outside of Alligator Reef, mostly on live threadfin herring set just off bottom.
On the offshore edge, dolphin (mahi-mahi) are still active in 600–900 feet following weed lines, with several boats limiting by 10 AM. Peanut-sized dolphin were thick, but a few gaffers up to 18 pounds were iced down this week. Trolling small skirted ballyhoo or chunking with fresh bonita strips worked best.
Bait of the day: live pilchards, which are schooled up thick near Windley Key and easy to catch with a few tosses of the cast net before sunup. Frozen shrimp is a solid backup, but if you can get finger mullet or live pinfish, do it—those were getting the biggest bites from snook and snapper.
Preferred artificials this morning included MirrOlure suspending twitchbaits in natural silver/green and 1/4-ounce soft plastic paddle tails in white or chartreuse, rigged weedless. Early in the day, topwater plugs like the classic Zara Spook and Rapala Skitter Walk drew aggressive strikes from both snook and big jacks just before the sun broke the horizon.
Hot spots today:
• Channel 2 Bridge—big snook and tarpon, especially sunrise and sunset on the north side, drifting baits with the tidal flow.
• Alligator Reef patch edges—best snapper bite, and a stray mutton if you’re patient and holding near the bottom structure.
A quick word for the safety-conscious: as always, sharks are following the mullet, especially bull sharks and blacktips near the bridges. Keep your wits about you if you plan to wade, and don’t let dinner dangle off the back of the boat too long.
That’s the Islamorada update for September 10th, 2025. Thank you for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe for your daily dose of fishing wisdom!
This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.
G
We started the morning with a balmy sunrise at 7:05 AM and we’ll have daylight running until 7:33 PM, offering over twelve hours to wet a line. Weather’s classic Florida Keys: southerly winds around 8 knots, air temp in the low 80s at dawn, climbing to the high 80s by late afternoon, with a 30% shot at a passing shower midafternoon. Humidity is up, but breezes kept the bugs and heat manageable through most of the early bite.
Now, tidal action’s lively and setting the rhythm for the bite. According to Islamorada tide charts, we had a high tide just before sunrise at 4:16 AM, a low tide mid-morning at 10:18 AM, another high at 4:03 PM, and wrapping up with low tide at 10:19 PM. Tidal coefficient today is swinging high, up to 84 by midday and peaking at 90 toward dusk, meaning big water movement, good current, and ideal conditions for predators to feed and for anglers chasing action. Early incoming and late outgoing tides are definitely your best windows.
Out on the water, the mullet run is still on and things are heating up. This week saw plentiful catches of snook, tarpon, mangrove snapper, and big jacks marauding the bait pods. Guides and locals reported solid numbers of slot-size snook off the channels near Indian Key Fill and Whale Harbor Bridge, especially with live pilchards and cut mullet drifted with the current. Tarpon rolled early in backcountry waters—Bogie Channel and around Channel 2 Bridge are holding rolling silver kings in the dusk and dawn hours. Several fish over 70 pounds were hooked and two confirmed landed yesterday evening between 7 and 8 PM.
Mangrove snapper are thick over the patch reefs and bridge pilings, with plenty of 12–16 inch keepers. Pinfish and shrimp on knocker rigs or jigheads did real work for folks fishing the edges of the boat channels and the old bascule bridge remnants. A few keeper mutton snapper were hauled up from the outside of Alligator Reef, mostly on live threadfin herring set just off bottom.
On the offshore edge, dolphin (mahi-mahi) are still active in 600–900 feet following weed lines, with several boats limiting by 10 AM. Peanut-sized dolphin were thick, but a few gaffers up to 18 pounds were iced down this week. Trolling small skirted ballyhoo or chunking with fresh bonita strips worked best.
Bait of the day: live pilchards, which are schooled up thick near Windley Key and easy to catch with a few tosses of the cast net before sunup. Frozen shrimp is a solid backup, but if you can get finger mullet or live pinfish, do it—those were getting the biggest bites from snook and snapper.
Preferred artificials this morning included MirrOlure suspending twitchbaits in natural silver/green and 1/4-ounce soft plastic paddle tails in white or chartreuse, rigged weedless. Early in the day, topwater plugs like the classic Zara Spook and Rapala Skitter Walk drew aggressive strikes from both snook and big jacks just before the sun broke the horizon.
Hot spots today:
• Channel 2 Bridge—big snook and tarpon, especially sunrise and sunset on the north side, drifting baits with the tidal flow.
• Alligator Reef patch edges—best snapper bite, and a stray mutton if you’re patient and holding near the bottom structure.
A quick word for the safety-conscious: as always, sharks are following the mullet, especially bull sharks and blacktips near the bridges. Keep your wits about you if you plan to wade, and don’t let dinner dangle off the back of the boat too long.
That’s the Islamorada update for September 10th, 2025. Thank you for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe for your daily dose of fishing wisdom!
This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.
G