3/23/14 Tarpon Fishing Islamorada in March

Another banner day today fishing was very good for our march islamorada tarpon fishing.  Conditions were similar to yesterday, flat calm in the morning though a little sunnier.  We used our bait from yesterday that was well iced and got right to the fishing hole.  Last of the incoming tide and the action was pretty quick.  We caught 3 fish in about 1.5 hours.  The slack tide things slowed down and then started falling again around 10:00.  Caught 2 out of 3 more for a total of 5 tarpon.  The last one being a nice 100+ lber!  Great fishing lots of fish in the backcountry though I think this mild front that is coming will slow things down for a few days though not blow them out entirely.  We fished a 3/4 day and back in at 1:00.  Time to catch bait for my night trip.  Mullet were difficult especially being a busy weekend day.  We found some in the creeks and had to throw about 20 times but got about 20 baits for myself and my bait catching partner.  We fished the local downtown islamorada channels and bridges and fishing was better than I expected.  By this evening the wind was out of the west blowing 10 knots or so, not a great tarpon condition.  We had about an hour of incoming tide and jumped two fish in that time period.  A good sign for florida keys tarpon fishing!  When the tide started falling we moved a bit further up the channel and we caught 2 tarpon of 50 and 65 lbs.  Plus a few nurse sharks and a big ray.  Home by dark.  Great day 7 tarpon to the boat in total hope for some more days like this soon!!!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk