Back on the tarpon today it was a gorgeous day with winds light out of the southeast. By the time we got into the backcountry it slicked out and was flat calm. Thankfully it was nice and overcast. We fished where we found the tarpon yesterday and they were still there. We watched several roll around the entire time. First bait out we hooked a fish within 5 minutes and we got him to the leader but he came off before we got any real good pictures. After that we caught a few sharks and after about an hour we hooked another tarpon. Same size fish they were both around 50 lbs and we got some good shots of this one and released him unharmed. After that things slowed down and we caught a couple more sharks including a 100 lb bull shark which was cool. Then around 10:30 we hooked a big 120 lb fish and we fought him for a good half hour. He put on quite a show and didn’t want to quit but we got him leadered and got some good boatside shots and released him as well. They weren’t pulling you out of the boat like you’d expect them to with the conditions we had, but catching 3 tarpon in a day is plenty fine with me! After that we went triple tail fishing and caught a few for dinner, including a 13 lber which was a beast! Honestly I was more excited about him than the tarpon we don’t see many over 10 lbs this days so it was a treat. Luckily the sharks weren’t too bad while tarpon fishing nor was the ‘red grass’ that often makes fishing very difficult in this area this time of year. Tomorrow I’ll likely be doing some tarpon fishing and then sunday the front is coming in. They are calling for some rain and sunday night it’s gonna drop down into the low 60s, so may not be doing any tarpon fishing for a few days after that – we will see what happens! 3 for 3
March 2016
3/17/16 Everglades Tarpon Fishing Report
Today I got back out tarpon fishing after just doing a half day yesterday of ‘rod bending’. I headed out into the backcountry as a buddy of mine said a lot of fish finally started showing up in the channels and other usual haunts the previous day. The fish way in the back off the beaches hadn’t been feeding too consistently so I was happy to hear there were some big schools of fish in new areas. Anyways we got there early around 8 AM and had a nice incoming tide. The sharks were around and we caught several of them and started seeing some tarpon rolling. They weren’t super happy though finally after an hour or so we hooked and caught a nice 50 lb fish. After that we proceeded to catch several more sharks and a few other odds and ends, and finally after about another 45 minutes when we were getting ready to pack it in, we hooked a large 110 lb tarpon! He put on quite a show and we got several nice jumps out of him, and he dragged us for almost a mile. After that we called it quits and finished the day catching a handful of trout and snappers. Fun day! I’ll be at it again tomorrow on a group trip and tarpon is the request, hopefully they will still be there! It sounds like Sunday we are getting a cold front and it will be in the low 60s for a couple nights. That will likely shut the tarpon down for a few days though it looks to be warming up right quick after that. Just when things were starting to get good… 2 for 2
3/14/16 + 3/15/16 Everglades Tarpon Fishing Report
3/14/16 – Today we fished all day for tarpon. I had caught some bait the previous afternoon in the muds on the way home which were fairly productive I put away but 40 baits. We tried locally in the channels nearby where I had seen lots of fish the morning before. Today though I didn’t see much we gave it a good 30-40 minutes. I ran into the backcountry and we tried some channels back there with no luck, and eventually made our way back off the mainland beaches. There were tons of tarpon back here, free jumping and busting all over as far as you could see. They were not eating however we fished for 2 hours pretty hard and moved several times. New arrivals that just aren’t wanting to feed. Eventually we left and tried another channel on the way home and we jumped one tarpon after about 5 minutes. We then made our way back towards Islamorada and caught a dozen mullet on the way and tried the live baits in the local channels. No luck however for us. We did catch a variety of sharks throughout the day that kept us semi busy however. 0 for 1
3/15/16 – Today we had tarpon on our minds again. I brought some shrimp for a backup plan as my anglers wanted a little bit of dinner too. We left early at 6:30 and ran right back towards the mainland beaches to try and get on those fish early. We got there a little after daybreak and it was the same scene – tarpon jumping and splashing everywhere you looked. Same deal though they just would not bite, we caught a few sharks and after the tide quit after a couple hours, we went and caught some tripletail. This was fairly good we got a couple for dinner and released several more. We then made our way back towards Islamorada to try the local channels again, however no luck there with tarpon we caught a few more sharks and that was it. 0 for 0
It’s been tough fishing for tarpon this is the latest start to the season I’ve seen since 2010 when we had that extreme cold winter. Though hopefully all these fish we’ve been seeing will move into the channels and throughout the bays and settle in. Once that happens it should get more consistent and they should start feeding more. Until then all you can do is try!
