I have a trip coming up. What's best bet for mid August? Any tips or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

The Marathon Lady head boat in Marathon is always worth doing.
Lots of locals owning boats fish on it regularly. Summer heat
will be in full swing causing diehards to fish at night. Charters have gotten pricey but there are a few open boat outfits. I believe Capt Pips down at the lower end of town does
that.

Call Buddy Lapointe

Google his name, he is always great at finding outstanding fishing and a great guy to spend the day with too

His Fishing business is calling " Fishing buddy"

He would be as good as you will find in the keys.
Always pretty well booked though.

I ended up taking the family out on the Marathon Lady. Top notch staff, the rods were sufficient (glad I brought my own) and the boat was clean. We caught several snapper. Folks on the stern caught a few sharks and a couple grouper.

Most of my fishing was off the pier at Key Colony Point. Great little spot. Caught endless Mangrove Snappers (biggest was a 15 incher). Saw a few Cuda and Tarpon rolling about.

On my heavy bait caster I kept a fish head with a couple ounces of weight, 50 lb leader and a #7 circle hook. Probably had 10 hits, either tarpon or large cudas. Some were nice enough to break the water and give me a show as they made off with my bait.

Friday was our last night, it was dusk. My wife brought a bottle of wine and a couple glasses. We reminisced about the week and what a magical place The Keys are. I lit a cigar and told my wife what a great fishing spot that was and how great it would have been to actually LAND a Tarpon.

Not even a minute passed by when my 6500c started singing!! Holy Crap, huge Tarpon bite!! He jumped a couple times as he swam out towards the channel. I forced myself to wait a few more seconds before engaging the drag. Line was coming off super fast.

I turned the handle finally and engaged the drag that was set to medium..... the fish did not slow down at all! Turned the drag a bit higher and he started to slow down and eventually turn.

I fought him for a few more minutes. He made a couple mad dashes for the pier pilings as he got close. Luckily I was able to keep him away.

He was tired when I got him close and I was worried about getting him off the line. My plan was to cut the line, grab his tail and get some water through his gills.

I reached down, cut the line as close to the hook as possible. He laid stunned in the water for about a second and with a big splash, swam off strong.

I must have fished for 50 hours off that pier. What an amazing send off to actually catch a Tarpon!