Got out the last couple of days with Ross and Harper visiting from Dallas. Today was the first day of mini season too but thankfully we don’t have to deal with all of that in the Everglades where I like to fish! We had phenomenal fishing both days! Yesterday we started with tarpon which have been swarming in the backcountry the last several weeks. It was slick calm which is often ideal for that early morning window especially, and the tide was just starting out. The fish were balled up tight… we were marking groups or 15, 20, 30 or more sometimes! We got bit up and landed 1 and jumped several more. Sharks started to get us so we moved around. Eventually that early morning ‘golden hour’ came to an end but we had lots of bites though they weren’t staying buttoned very well. We moved offshore and found some more and jumped another tarpon out there but the little blacktips started to show up and drive us nuts. So we moved more and stumbled into another group of tarpon. Not big numbers and I didn’t think it was going to produce more than a bite for us, but these fish were happy! We ended up catching a couple more and jumped another 3 or 4. So all in all over 10 bites on the day which was spectacular! After that we jumped in the creeks and caught some finger mullets and went snookin’ which wasn’t red hot but was productive we caught 8 or so plus a few other things.
Day 2 we did a similar game plan and found the tarpon early on again. Not as ‘schooled up’ and there was a tiny bit of a breeze (which felt good at least). We had the last trickle of incoming tide. Sure enough we set up and hooked one in the first couple minutes that we landed so a good start! Ended up jumping a couple more and hooked into some massive sharks… hooked a triple header of sharks at one point! After that we moved and hooked into a nicer size tarpon that Ross caught about a 50 lber. After that things settled down and the sharks got active again. We looked in some other areas but didn’t see much more for tarpon and decided to go snookin’ again. That again was productive we had to work at it but caught some finger mullets again, and jumped around some different spots picking snook and small goliath groupers again. Did get one more small tarpon on a finger mullet too so that was cool.
So all in all some great fishing all around! July’s been hot and I have availability in August too which can still be good as can September. I think those resident tarpon will be here all summer with some days being better than others but that’s fishing. All I can say is it’s been a heck of a lot better than our early season fishing this year in March/April where we had just a tough start to tarpon season. But if you want to come any time the next few months we can often set something up short notice and somewhat cherry pick the conditions if you have a decent window to fish. Drop me a line or book now on Vally!
