12/28/17 Late December Tarpon Fish in Islamorada

Gave the tarpon a try again today but definitely not our main quarry.  I had John and his son Andrew out and they wanted to try for a mixed bag.  We started out in the gulf with the spanish mackerel, that fishing was really good and all the action you could want.  It was a bit windy but not too bad for my boat.  The wind was howling north early and we then proceeded to the tarpon grounds after we finished up with the macks.  Tarpon were there for sure, we set up and put our gear out and fished hard.  No tarpon bites though but plenty of sharks.  The tide quit after about an hour and we decided to mix it up more and caught some triple tails, and got a really nice redfish in another spot for Andrew which was cool.  The wind had slicked off before this which was great as triple tail fishing isn’t very fun when it’s blowing 20 out of the north here.  We ran hard back to the tarpon grounds after that with the tide falling now and the wind having swung back to the southeast.  Didn’t see as much tarpon activity but we did see a few bust and set up in a spot.  Again though no more bites but we did get a big 100 lb blacktip for Andrew which was a great fight very similar to a big tarpon!  After that we called it a day and headed home, the boys were glad though they caught a bunch of fish and many different kinds.  A buddy of mine dedicated his whole day to tarpon in that same area, they did catch one and had another one on I know, so you really just gotta put your time in and a little bit of luck helps too.  But tomorrow night it’s suppose to drop back into the mid 60s and get slightly colder each night throughout t he weekend.   That’ll likely put the tarpon off for a while, as they aren’t super happy right now anyhow.  So it may be it for the year for me though I’ll likely give it a shot tomorrow if my customers would like to.  0 for 0