2/28/17 February Islamorada Tarpon Fishing Report

Got out with Brian and Bob today and tarpon was on their bucket list.  We caught some mullet early on I hadn’t been using them much but I figured it’s getting close to that time.  We were able to find a mud after a little looking around.  After a few empty throws we caught about 2 dozen.  We tried the backcountry channels in the AM and not much going on back there.  The sharks weren’t even really biting!  We moved around a bit and with all the wind and mud didn’t see a whole lot except for 1 tarpon roll.  But after over an hour we hadn’t had a bite just one little shark so we moved on.  The next channel we caught another couple sharks and that was it, no signs of tarpon life.  We decided to bend the light rods a little for an hour or so, and did catch some nice trout.  We then ran back towards Islamorada to give the local channels a try which I haven’t really fished yet this year.  We set up and after about 25 minutes or so, Brian hooked a great 80 lb tarpon!  He jumped a few times and then we landed him after a 20 minute battle.  I didn’t see any other fish rolling but did see a few on the bottom machine, so hopefully they’ll stick around.  We may be giving it a try again tomorrow!  1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk