Got out with Zack and his dad Peter this morning for a half day tarpon trip. We didn’t see much in the first channel and it was very weedy… made it tough to fish our live baits they kept getting knocked off the hooks. I moved after 20 minutes since we hadn’t seen much and got frustrated after losing 3 baits. But we moved out to the other end of the channel and found a big pack of tarpon! They were rolling frequently and busting here and there. We ended up hooking one after about 15 minutes of fishing, Zack caught a nice 80 lb fish. After that it kind of slowed down, we caught a shark and a big jack crevelle. Though no more tarpon bites. We moved around a little bit too but no luck. After that they started to thin out and I moved to the channel next door. We found some more fish there and gave it some time, catching a few more blacktips, a big nurse shark, and then another tarpon of about 60 lbs! Continued to see a few more fish, and caught another big jack, and then that was about the end of our morning. The tide was quitting and it was time to go. Though very happy to have caught a couple, the winds are suppose to subside today and should be a nice week coming up. I think the fishing will be good! 2 for 2
March 2017
3/25/17 March Tarpon Fishing Islamorada in the Everglades
Got out today for a 3/4 day with Dennis and his daughter Molly down from Minnesota. They didn’t have any specific requests for fishing, so I suggested we do a mix of light tackle and then try for some bigger stuff possibly tarpon and sharks. Things worked out great we had good action with trout in the morning and did that for a little over an hour or so. Then we checked a couple tarpon spots. Nothing in the first set of channels, I had thought maybe some fish would of pushed in there with the weather warming up but didn’t see much though I didn’t try fishing it either. I ran back to where the big school of tarpon was a few days ago, and there were still a few there! They weren’t stacked up like the other day, but after a little looking around I started to see some signs of them. We set up and within 15 minutes or so had a nice 75 lb fish on that Dennis caught. We caught a few sharks too which Molly loved, and then she got to catch a tarpon roughly the same size as dads. It jumped like crazy and hit the boat, we got the leader on it, but then the hook pulled before we could get a good picture though a legal catch. After that we headed home and stopped to catch bait for tomorrow on the way. Not sure what I’m doing tomorrow but I think I have a half day so may be fishing closer to town if it’s for tarpon. 2 for 2
3/23/17 Tarpon Fishing in March Islamorada Florida Keys
Well today it got flat calm and conditions were ‘right!’ We caught some mullet on our way out, found some birds bombing on a flat and were able to get nearby in the channel and catch enough bait in a half dozen throws of the cast net. We ran back into the everglades where we had found the tarpon yesterday, but today I knew we’d have tide all morning plus loaded with fresh bait so it was a good scenario. The tarpon fishing was epic… I had Steven and his son Mason from Arkansas. They had fished here before offshore, but never in the backcountry. Today was their lucky day! We proceeded to mash the tarpon… going 6 for 12 in about 3 1/2 hours! It really does not ever get any better than that. Around noon time, the boys had had their fill so we decided to just do some rod bending. We caught plenty of trout and a handful of ladyfish. Just an awesome day, the one i’ve been waiting for! Definitely the best day I’ve had this year, though tomorrow it sounds like it’s suppose to change and blow 25. Good thing I’m taking off. Hopefully some of these fish will continue pushing through into the backcountry and locally here. 6 for 12
