March 2015

3/2/15 March Florida Keys Tarpon Fishing Report

Good news tarpon fishing in the florida keys sounded good all around today.  I talked to several guides who fished different areas, and there were fish reported in many of them.  We fished locally where I’d been having success as of late.  This morning bait fishing was a little tough but we manged a few mullet before leaving the dock with my charter.  Action this morning was all on live bait we set up and soon after had a tarpon ‘cheap shotting’ our mullets – playing with them, smacking them, etc…  We ended up getting 4 or so solid bites, however were not able to really stick any of them.  Large mullet and not super large tarpon, which sometimes the baits are so big it is tough for them to find the hook.  Anyways the action was worth it and we had plenty of ‘cheap shots’ too for close to 2 hours.  Mid day we looked for more bait but it was very tough, some big muds and did see some mullet showering, though there were not happy flipping where they would be catchable.  Anyways we went and caught some snapper for dinner, and set back up in the afternoon to try to hook another tarpon.  We had a few baits left and after 20 minutes we were into a big slob of a tarpon.  We fought him for an hour and probably close to 150 lb fish.  Great way to end the day!  1 for 5.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

3/1/15 March Islamorada Tarpon Fishing Report

High winds out of the east today blowing 20 knots most of the day.  We are still in a very weird tidal phase.  Weak current in the backcountry but finally started moving in slowly.  We only had shark bites and some big jacks attack us fishing the channels back there.  Landed a few sharks and a big jack at least.  Mid day we decided to catch some dinner which we were able to do.  Finished the day up tarpon fishing around town again.  The tide was slack when I got there, very strange because it turned around 10 AM yesterday so it should of been falling until 5 PM or so.  But anyways we waited it out and finally around 2:30 the tide was moving in again.  In a couple more days things will hopefully be back to a normal schedule with tides.  We got our tarpon bite a nice 60 lb fish that almost jumped in the boat.  We landed him and went home, good way to end the day!  1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

3115tarpon