2/28/15 Morning half day tarpon trip in Islamorada

Well today was first official ‘tarpon trip’ for the year.  While we’ve already caught a few we’ve mostly been focusing on other things and just giving the tarpon shot a little bit of time.  Anyways we caught mullet early this morning a few starting to gather in the local areas.  It was tough had to throw 15 times to catch 2 dozen baits, but we got ’em.  Anyways I fished locally around Islamorada where I’d been seeing fish, not much first thing this morning though.  Very weak tide and took a while to turn.  Anyways I ran all over checking the bridges, bays, and other channels.  Did not see much of anything as far as tarpon went.  Finally for the last bit of the morning we went back to where we were first thing, tide was falling better now.  Saw quite a few fish rolling and we set up and eventually hooked a nice 40 lber.  Landed him and that was that, glad we got one.  Anyways I would say it is still a bit early to really put all your eggs in the ‘tarpon’ basket – likely best to do other things and just try for tarpon for part of the day.  Though as we continue into March it should get better especially once the water gets closer in the 80 degree range.  And a nice calm sunny day will likely start bringing some bigger schools of fish in.  1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk