Well we had a late cold front several days ago and I had yesterday off. So I hadn’t really given the tarpon a try as my anglers have opted for action over sitting there waiting for a bite all day. Unfortunately with these cold fronts, the backcountry waters where I’ve been fishing get a few degrees colder than the local Islamorada waters, and it’s far from the gulf stream, so it takes some time to warm back up. For the most part the big schools of fish back there are spread out probably hiding in the deeper gulf waters waiting for it to get nice again. There are some tarpon locally around islamorada that are a little less affected as the warmer atlantic is nearby, however they still aren’t super happy plus you have a bunch of boats out there being spring break. Anyways we decided to mix it up today and we hit the backcountry first. Put a nice catch together of about 15 redfish, 8 snook, a couple black drum, and maybe 20 trout. Had to work at it a little the areas we fished were a little more affected by the ripping winds, but we made it happen. We spent our last hour in town around Islamorada trying for a tarpon. Did not see much, but the water did get up to 75 or so, definitely in the range to get a bite or two, but just did not happen for us.
Tomorrow and tuesday morning look nice and calm, so that may be a better window for the tarpon out in the backcountry. Then we unfortunately have another cold front tuesday and wednesday night. Not getting super cold but it’s not going to do the backcountry tarpon any favors. So it’ll likely be good for snook/redfish/etc… but if you want tarpon, may be best to sit around the bridges and such. We’ll see what my anglers want to do when the time arrives. 0 for 0
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
