Well I must’ve jinxed myself a few days ago when I said fishing was just starting to get good… The last couple days out have been tough! Today we ran into the backcountry and the winds were cranking out of the south about 20 mph… My clients were not die hard for tarpon so I figured going out back would give us some other options as well. We found a few tarpon in the first channel we fished, but they didn’t want to bite. We tried for a while and moved a few times, never even had a shark bite! We did end up catching a small cobia though at least. We ran further back where there had been tons of tarpon last week, but didn’t see much at all out there. We did end up catching a couple blacktip sharks though. We then bent the light rods for a while, caught plenty of trout and ladyfish, and a few for dinner. We tried for tarpon again near home for the last hour, again saw a few fish but no bite. I heard a few guys that stuck it out all day fishing around town did have a handful of bites, but the general consensus was you were lucky to get a couple shots for four, five, or six hours of fishing! Anyways the winds are suppose to die down tonight, hopefully the water will clean back up and the fish will get happier. I don’t know if I’m tarpon fishing tomorrow, but we’ll see! 0 for 0
March 2017
3/28/17 Half Day Tarpon Fishing in Islamorada
Got out for a half day today to do some tarpon fishing. Had some bait leftover from yesterday and some live mullet that I kept overnight that were in good shape. Unfortunately the tarpon were not very cooperative. We found some fish in the channel where I had caught them a few days ago, but they didn’t bite early on. We went down to the bigger bridges and channels down the road, and found a lot of fish out off the edge of one of the flats leading to the bridge. My buddy who was also fishing the other part of our party ended up having a bite and catching one there, but we moved around 4 or 5 times, and never had one even show any interest in a bait. A couple baits did get pretty nervous, and we caught a big jack crevelle, but that was it. Tried the channels near home again for the last hour of the trip, and no bites there either. Anyways, tough morning for us… It was nice to get on a little roll while it lasted. Tomorrow I have the same crew but we are meat fishing, and Thursday I’m off, so may not get back to tarpon fishing until Friday or so. 0 for 0
3/27/17 Islamorada Tarpon Fishing in March continues
Got out with the Donahue brothers today over from California. We caught plenty of trout in the morning and saved some for dinner. Later on we ran back to look for the tarpon off of Flamingo. We saw a handful though we had to wait a bit for the tide to start coming in. After 45 minutes and a couple moves, it started to creep in slowly. We hadn’t had much action, and made another move out to where we saw some fish showing. After a bit we finally hooked a nice 110 lb fish. He fought hard and we landed him though no boatside picture as he broke off on the leader. Set back up and about 30 minutes later we hooked another fish, of about 90 lbs or so. Same type of fight he stayed down and dirty and made a few crazy leaping jumps. We got him on the leader and tried to take it a little easier on him, but after several violent thrusts under the boat, the hook pulled out. They just didn’t want to cooperate for photo ops, but good release none the less. The last fish we hooked about 15 minutes later, we got him boat side after 10 minutes or so, but he jumped and threw the hook but got the leader into the rod tip for a technical release. So all in all fairly good fishing though we had to wait on it to get right, the first hour and a half almost had me sweating! Anyways couple half days the next two days, probably fishing tarpon locally around the bridges and channels. We’ll see what happens! 3 for 3
