I had Dave Huffman and his son in law Daryl today, a long time customer of fellow guide Vic Gaspeny. They were down from North Carolina and Dave wanted Daryl to catch a tarpon. We were out scouting for bait early and there was a lot of rain and weather around, though we were able to avoid it but unfortunately did not find much for mullet. However I had a bit of leftovers from the day before and we went out with that. We had the last trickle of falling tide and found some fish rolling heavily in the local channels. We set up and they were all around though not really responding to our bait presentations. Finally after an hour the tide changed and we hooked a monster fish well over 100 lbs! I’d been fishing my slightly lighter rods since most fish I’ve seen lately have been in the 40 to 80 lb range, though this was a brute. He dragged us around the channel a few times, making a few wild jumps but spent most of his time meandering around very slowly and saving his energy. He got us up near the bridge and eventually went through some of the skinny pilings which almost let him get away. We quickly tied the rod to my throw cushion and floated it through the pilings though and grabbed it on the other side, allowing us to hang on to the fish! It was quite a maneuver and I’ve done it a handful of times but it doesn’t always work out as planned. Anyways we landed the fish after a 2 hour battle though unfortunately he broke on the leader right after I grabbed it so we didn’t get any good boatside pics, though plenty of jumping action shots. He was a solid 120 lb fish, I think one of the largest I’ve landed so far this year. After that we had a little time left we put baits out but no more tarpon bites, but we did get a big nurse shark and jack crevelle. Quite a battle for the morning and glad we made it happen in the rain and nasty weather! 1 for 1
March 2016
3/24/16 Islamorada Tarpon Fishing Report
Got after some tarpon today after the ‘big chill’ a few days ago. Temperatures plummeted back into the high 50s for one night and that really put a damper on our tarpon fishing right as things had started to get good. Anyways luckily it was just a one night deal and things have slowly started to warm back up, however with the high kickin’ winds it’s been a slow process. Yesterday we were able to catch some bait in the afternoon after a half day trip. I used it today we tried fishing the bridges which I’ve had some luck on when things are on the chillier side. Today however no luck there we had some nervous baits jumping around but nothing wanted to try and really eat them. We even ran down the road towards the bigger bridges near marathon though there wasn’t much life there that i could see. Of course with the high winds and ripping current it was tough to see anything that may of been laying on the bottom. Anyways we bailed and went and caught some mackerels then gave the tarpon a try again on the way home. We got in one of the local channels where I’d been finding them and right after all was looking glum we ended up hooking and landing a nice 50 lb fish right as the incoming tide was dying! We decided to call it a day there so it was a good way to end it. Fishing should improve slightly the coming week, however I do hear we have another front on the way (ugh!), though so far it looks to be much more mild so hopefully it won’t affect things to much. And a good chance it may fizzle out altogether (i hope so!) 1 for 1
3/19/16 + 3/20/16 Islamorada Tarpon Fishing Report
3/19/16 – Today winds kicked up substantially out of the southwest, not a great condition for our tarpon fishery. We ran out into the backcountry where the tarpon had been swarming the last few days, and saw a few around when we got there. We jumped one fish on the last of the falling tide and that was about it for tarpon action for the day for us. We switched channels when the tide turned, though their were already a couple boats there before us. It was frustrating because we did see one boat catch several tarpon, though if you weren’t sitting on that exact spot you weren’t getting a bite. We made a few moves and caught several sharks, then ended up doing some rod bending with ladyfish and a few trout. Unfortunately the channels out there and bay turned into a complete mudhole making for tough fishing. 0 for 1
3/20/16 – Today tarpon was the main target we caught some bait early and made our way into the backcountry to try the channels back there again. Winds were still howling out of the southwest with the cold front coming in later this evening. We ran to where we saw some fish caught the previous day, however no such luck today. We caught several sharks, and when the tide quit the mullet swarmed in the channels. We took a little time to stock up on fresh bait then we tried some different channels. Nothing but sharks though we got a little variety with a couple big nurses among the other blacktips, we did see some tarpon roll in one area and got on top of them and gave it a good 45 minutes, but no response unfortunately. We ended up running back around town to try live baiting the local channels. We didn’t see any tarpon there either, but we did catch a big jack crevelle, and some various sharks too. 0 for 0
Looks like tonight and tomorrow will be dropping into the 60s, and even high 50s monday night. It will likely be too cold to mess with tarpon fishing so I will likely be recommending my anglers to fish for other things. But time will tell hopefully by next weekend things will get somewhat back to normal, I’m ready for some consistent nice weather and steady tarpon action!
