Somebody turned on the wind machine again today. It was blowing 20-25 northeast! Anyways I had some leftover bait from yesterday and we got out after tarpon early. Saw only one in the channel where we had found a wad of them yesterday, though never had a bite after moving around a couple times aside from a barracuda that bit us off. Tried another channel and we saw a tarpon roll right away nearby so we set up. We hooked up a big nurse shark we landed, then had a strong hard zip which I think was a tarpon though never saw him jump. Though 5 minutes later we did jump one. Unfortunately neither of them stayed on the hook! Anyways after that we fished a bit longer though things slowed down. We finished up the day catching some big trout and mangrove snappers, and got a couple snook to finish! 0 for 2
June 2016
6/19/16 Islamorada Tarpon Report Backcountry June
Yesterday we did some meat fishing so left the tarpon alone. Today we got after ’em again it was slick calm and the bait was easy and fishing was good. Just how we like it! Found a nice ball of bait in the backcountry and made a throw and had plenty of mullets. We found some tarpon in the first place we stopped. Caught a couple in the first hour, two bites so we did well. After that they kinda quit showing and tide was slowing down. Eventually we did other stuff the rest of the day which was productive as well, some nice trout and finished with plenty of snook! Looks like the winds suppose to crank up tomorrow for a couple days, at least it’s suppose to be more easterly and not west again! 2 for 2
6/17/16 Backcountry Islamorada Tarpon Report
Very tough fishing today we had originally scheduled a 3/4 day but ended up cutting to a half. No bait around in the morning I brought some frozen stuff and I had a handful of fresh baits from a couple days ago that were still on good ice. Stiff west breeze and falling tide, ugly water, didn’t see a fish in the morning. We fished pretty hard a couple of the channels where the tarpon were a few days ago, and didn’t get much of anything. Not a sniff the first hour, then the 2nd spot later we did catch a teeny blacktip and a sting ray. After an hour of that, we decided to catch a few small things to bend the rod. A few ladyfish and I saw some trout chasing the baits but we didn’t entice a bite. After 20 minutes of that the guys decided to call it a half day and we went in. Just when things had started getting better, we get crappy wind again. Really I’m about over this hard, tough year! No tarpon fishing today we are just bending the rod, will probably be forgoing it on Sunday as well. 0 for 0
