Well I must’ve jinxed myself a few days ago when I said fishing was just starting to get good… The last couple days out have been tough! Today we ran into the backcountry and the winds were cranking out of the south about 20 mph… My clients were not die hard for tarpon so I figured going out back would give us some other options as well. We found a few tarpon in the first channel we fished, but they didn’t want to bite. We tried for a while and moved a few times, never even had a shark bite! We did end up catching a small cobia though at least. We ran further back where there had been tons of tarpon last week, but didn’t see much at all out there. We did end up catching a couple blacktip sharks though. We then bent the light rods for a while, caught plenty of trout and ladyfish, and a few for dinner. We tried for tarpon again near home for the last hour, again saw a few fish but no bite. I heard a few guys that stuck it out all day fishing around town did have a handful of bites, but the general consensus was you were lucky to get a couple shots for four, five, or six hours of fishing! Anyways the winds are suppose to die down tonight, hopefully the water will clean back up and the fish will get happier. I don’t know if I’m tarpon fishing tomorrow, but we’ll see! 0 for 0
Month: March 2017
3/28/17 Half Day Tarpon Fishing in Islamorada
Got out for a half day today to do some tarpon fishing. Had some bait leftover from yesterday and some live mullet that I kept overnight that were in good shape. Unfortunately the tarpon were not very cooperative. We found some fish in the channel where I had caught them a few days ago, but they didn’t bite early on. We went down to the bigger bridges and channels down the road, and found a lot of fish out off the edge of one of the flats leading to the bridge. My buddy who was also fishing the other part of our party ended up having a bite and catching one there, but we moved around 4 or 5 times, and never had one even show any interest in a bait. A couple baits did get pretty nervous, and we caught a big jack crevelle, but that was it. Tried the channels near home again for the last hour of the trip, and no bites there either. Anyways, tough morning for us… It was nice to get on a little roll while it lasted. Tomorrow I have the same crew but we are meat fishing, and Thursday I’m off, so may not get back to tarpon fishing until Friday or so. 0 for 0
3/27/17 Islamorada Tarpon Fishing in March continues
Got out with the Donahue brothers today over from California. We caught plenty of trout in the morning and saved some for dinner. Later on we ran back to look for the tarpon off of Flamingo. We saw a handful though we had to wait a bit for the tide to start coming in. After 45 minutes and a couple moves, it started to creep in slowly. We hadn’t had much action, and made another move out to where we saw some fish showing. After a bit we finally hooked a nice 110 lb fish. He fought hard and we landed him though no boatside picture as he broke off on the leader. Set back up and about 30 minutes later we hooked another fish, of about 90 lbs or so. Same type of fight he stayed down and dirty and made a few crazy leaping jumps. We got him on the leader and tried to take it a little easier on him, but after several violent thrusts under the boat, the hook pulled out. They just didn’t want to cooperate for photo ops, but good release none the less. The last fish we hooked about 15 minutes later, we got him boat side after 10 minutes or so, but he jumped and threw the hook but got the leader into the rod tip for a technical release. So all in all fairly good fishing though we had to wait on it to get right, the first hour and a half almost had me sweating! Anyways couple half days the next two days, probably fishing tarpon locally around the bridges and channels. We’ll see what happens! 3 for 3
3/26/17 March Tarpon Fishing half day Islamorada
Got out with Zack and his dad Peter this morning for a half day tarpon trip. We didn’t see much in the first channel and it was very weedy… made it tough to fish our live baits they kept getting knocked off the hooks. I moved after 20 minutes since we hadn’t seen much and got frustrated after losing 3 baits. But we moved out to the other end of the channel and found a big pack of tarpon! They were rolling frequently and busting here and there. We ended up hooking one after about 15 minutes of fishing, Zack caught a nice 80 lb fish. After that it kind of slowed down, we caught a shark and a big jack crevelle. Though no more tarpon bites. We moved around a little bit too but no luck. After that they started to thin out and I moved to the channel next door. We found some more fish there and gave it some time, catching a few more blacktips, a big nurse shark, and then another tarpon of about 60 lbs! Continued to see a few more fish, and caught another big jack, and then that was about the end of our morning. The tide was quitting and it was time to go. Though very happy to have caught a couple, the winds are suppose to subside today and should be a nice week coming up. I think the fishing will be good! 2 for 2
3/25/17 March Tarpon Fishing Islamorada in the Everglades
Got out today for a 3/4 day with Dennis and his daughter Molly down from Minnesota. They didn’t have any specific requests for fishing, so I suggested we do a mix of light tackle and then try for some bigger stuff possibly tarpon and sharks. Things worked out great we had good action with trout in the morning and did that for a little over an hour or so. Then we checked a couple tarpon spots. Nothing in the first set of channels, I had thought maybe some fish would of pushed in there with the weather warming up but didn’t see much though I didn’t try fishing it either. I ran back to where the big school of tarpon was a few days ago, and there were still a few there! They weren’t stacked up like the other day, but after a little looking around I started to see some signs of them. We set up and within 15 minutes or so had a nice 75 lb fish on that Dennis caught. We caught a few sharks too which Molly loved, and then she got to catch a tarpon roughly the same size as dads. It jumped like crazy and hit the boat, we got the leader on it, but then the hook pulled before we could get a good picture though a legal catch. After that we headed home and stopped to catch bait for tomorrow on the way. Not sure what I’m doing tomorrow but I think I have a half day so may be fishing closer to town if it’s for tarpon. 2 for 2
