Well after the small cold blast we had the last couple days, today was flat calm and things warmed up again nicely. A mini front dropped the water temperatures from the high 70s back down to 70ish, and the tarpon definitely dont like that. I didn’t even bother fishing for them, but we did some other things for the last couple days to keep us busy. Today my anglers Brandon and Eric had mentioned tarpon and I told them we’d have a shot since it looked to be on the warming trend, even though water temps are still on the lower end of what I like to see for catching tarpon in Islamorada. We caught plenty of mackerels early on for the first hour, then went and checked the channels. We found a ton of tarpon where we first stopped, didn’t see many rolling but a tail splash here or there, but I could see them on my bottom machine! We first hooked a big blacktip that Eric battled, and as soon as we landed that, Brandon hooked a monster 150 lb tarpon. He jumped several times but never made any blistering runs, but luckily he stayed on the hook. We eventually landed him after 20 minutes or so – a pretty quick battle for a fish that size. We got sucked into looking for tarpon the rest of the day, and fished a few more areas, though that was to be the only bite we had. We did catch some more sharks, and a big old sawfish which was cool. Marked a few other tarpon and maybe saw a couple roll in some of the other areas, but no big packs like where we first stopped. Anyhow tomorrow looks like conditions should be good for the silver king in the florida keys, then looks like it’ll get a little chilly a couple nights later in the week, but maybe not enough to really bother the tarpon – we will have to see! That’s the only problem this time of year is you still have a good possibility of cold weather, and sometimes even though it may not feel like it changes much, a few degrees in the water temperatures can make the tarpon go from happy and chewing, to not doing much at all. 1 for 1
February 2017
2/15/17 February Tarpon Fishing in the Everglades
Got out with Jim and Gwen today, two of my longest running customers and some of my favorites. Winds were kicking out of the southwest pretty good as we have another front coming in. We had some bait left over from a few days ago and we hit the channels looking for some tarpon. We found them in the first place we stopped, had nice falling tide that would last most of the day. We caught a few sharks early then Jim jumped a nice tarpon over 100 lbs! Too bad he didn’t stay on the hook though… After that we moved around a bit and caught a couple more sharks, then Gwen hooked a nice 70 lb tarpon that we landed. A good fight we had to chase it for a while but got some nice pictures by the boat. After that the tarpon seemed to slow down, so we tried another part of the channel. Saw a few on the bottom machine but no more bites, but we did catch some more sharks and a ‘mud marlin’ sawfish. After that it got rougher and we hid around the islands to catch some snappers for dinner and came home. With the front coming in tonight and tomorrow, I imagine the tarpon will slow down for a few days again… suppose to get down around 60 and they definitely don’t like that! But not going to get cold until tomorrow night so maybe there will be a shot tomorrow morning. 1 for 2
2/9/17 Islamorada Tarpon Fishing in February
Got after the tarpon again today. We had a light southwesterly breeze that picked up a little in the afternoon but overall not too bad. It is a prefrontal condition though and suppose to get down in the 60s tonight so may turn the tarpon off for a few days at least. We caught plenty of mackerels early and then hit the tarpon areas. Fish were where they had been, we caught sharks and some ‘mud marlin’ sawfish early on, and after a couple moves we hooked a big 150 lb tarpon! He was jumping like crazy coming at us and every which direction, but he stayed on there. We got him to the boat with leader in hand, but he didn’t want to pose for a boatside picture. Luckily we caught another and this one wasn’t quite as big but still probably 120-130 or so. He didn’t fight as hard but still ended up taking us a ways with the current and wind, but we got him next to the boat for some good photo ops. After that we caught a few more sharks and tried for a few snook again to finish the day, but with the wind direction the shoreline area was fairly muddy and didn’t have much luck. Though a great day with 2 big tarpon and some other critters too! 2 for 2
