4/4/16 April Tarpon Fishing in the Florida Keys

Got out with Aaron down from DC today with his dad who flew over from the west coast.  Tarpon were on the agenda but they also wanted some dinner and little variety as well.  We tried for tarpon in the morning, got out a little early at 6 to catch the last of the tide locally.  It proved to be a good bet we had two tarpon bites but unfortunately they didn’t stay on the hook for us.  We ran into the backcountry after that and didn’t do much with tarpon back there, saw a couple rollers.  The sharks were not even biting really, we caught a lemon shark in the second spot and a sting ray in the first, but no other blacktips or anything.  After that we switched gears and caught plenty of trout and ladyfish, though none big enough for dinner.  So for the last hour we caught some mangrove snappers, and did get some nice size ones about 8 or so enough for a couple good dinners for the boys.  Tomorrow we’re out again and I think we’ll focus more on tarpon throughout the day.  If it’s still windy will likely stick it out around town as that’s been a bit better than in the backcountry for tarpon with the hard south winds.  Looks like this weekend we are getting slammed with a late cold front, might slow things down for a few days.  0 for 2

Capt. Rick Stanczyk