3/17/16 Everglades Tarpon Fishing Report

Today I got back out tarpon fishing after just doing a half day yesterday of ‘rod bending’.  I headed out into the backcountry as a buddy of mine said a lot of fish finally started showing up in the channels and other usual haunts the previous day.  The fish way in the back off the beaches hadn’t been feeding too consistently so I was happy to hear there were some big schools of fish in new areas.  Anyways we got there early around 8 AM and had a nice incoming tide.  The sharks were around and we caught several of them and started seeing some tarpon rolling.  They weren’t super happy though finally after an hour or so we hooked and caught a nice 50 lb fish.  After that we proceeded to catch several more sharks and a few other odds and ends, and finally after about another 45 minutes when we were getting ready to pack it in, we hooked a large 110 lb tarpon!  He put on quite a show and we got several nice jumps out of him, and he dragged us for almost a mile.  After that we called it quits and finished the day catching a handful of trout and snappers.  Fun day!  I’ll be at it again tomorrow on a group trip and tarpon is the request, hopefully they will still be there!  It sounds like Sunday we are getting a cold front and it will be in the low 60s for a couple nights.  That will likely shut the tarpon down for a few days though it looks to be warming up right quick after that.  Just when things were starting to get good…  2 for 2

Capt. Rick Stanczyk