Had a half day morning tarpon trip this AM. Looked for bait but it was very tough, after the cold front a few days ago the mullet haven’t been thick in the usual morning spots. We had plenty from a couple days ago still though and a friend gave me a few livies he caught the afternoon before. We fished the local channels and action was slow, saw a handful of fish roll and stuck it out. After an hour or so we hooked up what seemed to be a tarpon. No jumps but it ran drag out like a big tarpon not a shark. We gave chase and unfortunately had my spinning gear fail, the drag completely locked up with no previous indication it was faulty and I had just serviced them a couple months ago. Bummer but that happens when you pull on as many big things as we do with the drags locked down! Anyways we regrouped and set back up (minus that rod of course), after another 45 minutes we hooked a big tarpon that went airborne immediately! We chased him and after a 30 minute battle had a nice 110 lb tarpon boatside! Biggest I’ve seen lately. A good end to the morning I was very glad to get a fish after the unfortunate mishap.
March 2014
3/7/14 Spring tarpon fishing in the florida keys
Well the front came here today we had stiff breezes out of the west today but not much rain thankfully. We did some rod bending early and caught some stuff for dinner, then gave it a try for tarpon the last couple hours. I had some dead mullet from yesterday still so we set up and put baits on the bottom. We hooked what I thought was a shark within 20 minutes or so, it didn’t jump for a few minutes and ran out line steadily. Finally a nice 75 lb tarpon leaped airborne and we gave chase. Caught him after a 20 minute fight and several more nice jumps. After that we caught multiple large jacks up to 12 lbs and a couple big nurse sharks. Not too shabby for a nasty day with the west wind. Came in after 4 hours cutting it too a half day.
3/6/14 March Florida Keys Tarpon Fishing Report Half Day
We fished a half day this morning. Mullets were thick right in the marina basin, we caught plenty in a few throws, big balls of mullet that we like to see in the spring with tarpon even busting them. I tried some of the local channels for the first 45 minutes, end of the falling tide. Tough to fish as tide was into the wind hard. Saw several fish rolling, but not active or happy. We went and caught snappers for dinner then gave it a try again once the tide turned. Now the wind and current were together, much easier to fish. We put live and dead baits out, within a few minutes we had a nervous mullet and a hungry tarpon after him. He finally hammered him and we caught him – a nice 40 lb fish. We went back and more of the same, missed several on the live baits, lost one around a lobster bouy, but ended up catching a couple more. The mullets were very large so tough to eat for resident size 40-60 lb fish. But fun as heck to watch them blow the mullets up! We ended up catching 3 out of 10 or so, epic fishing in only about 2 hours. Things will likely change though, incoming cold front will slow it down again for a little bit, but will likely be a good thing overall as if it is too nice early in the season may and june can be tougher fishing for tarpon.
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- march islamorada tarpon
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- march florida keys tarpon
