Offshore:
Well, that “onshore blow” the last couple days of last week stayed with us as high pressure continued to pump in hard wind until tropical storm Bonnie pushed it out of the picture.  The T.S. weather was much nicer that the previous two weeks of onshore wind produced by the anchored high.  Although, the offshore fishing was quite good, there were few charters out to verify the fact.  The few boats that did get offshore came back with good catches of Dolphin, large and small.  The Hump was productive for Black Fin Tuna also.

Reefs:
The reef’s edge was not a comfortable place to anchor last week as the surge from the seas piled up against the 80 foot wall of the reef.  There were a few brave “Viking-esk” anglers that did brave the elements and fished Yellowtail Snapper.  Capt. Robert Mathias on his Restless Too put his clients on the Snapper one day and the result was a box full.

Gulf and Bay:
Hmmmmmm, broken record here.  It was too rough, too muddy and to grassy for anyone to try the ride to the Gulf this past week.   When the wind lays down, which will be by the weekend, look for things to quickly get back to normal.  Normal being, good Tarpon and lots of Trout and Snapper in the shallow grass.  Also the wrecks are holding Permit and some small Cobia along with a host of good rod bending species.

Flats, Backcountry and Flamingo:
Here is where most of the fishing went on last week, mostly because of the shallow water and places to hide from the wind.  Many guys Tarpon fished with relative success.  Remember, Tarpon like calm, sultry conditions, and that is not what we experienced last week.  Capt. Dave Atkinson persevered and caught a couple of Tarpon on dead bait. The only other game in town was the Flamingo trip.  The wind was out of an easterly direction and when the tide was falling the conditions were fair, but when the tide pushed against the wind it got brutal.  Capt. Lou Brubaker caught the tide change one day and had a Tarpon eat a ladyfish in the main channel.  T.S. Bonnie exited the Keys on Friday night and Saturday morning the breeze was a refreshing 10 to 15, very fishable