Got a 3/4 day in today we left early at 6 for our florida keys tarpon fishing in august. I had mullet from yesterday so we tried to catch some pilchards as we originally had a full day planned. Bait was not cooperative though only pinfish and snappers came up. So we ran and tarpon fished off the beaches of east cape sable. A boat was fishing where I had been sitting lately so I fished another area nearby, we did not have any luck early though I spotted a free jumping fish off in the distance a couple hundred yards. We had good falling tide though with the super moon. About 10 minutes later I saw another bust so we reeled our lines up and trolled over there. We set up and within 15 minutes we had a nice 65 lb tarpon on! He swam back at the boat with bait in his mouth and jumped off the bow, very exciting he did not know he was hooked. We chased and caught him and set back up. Hooked a double header though one spit the bait and we caught the other one, a 30 lb fish. Then we had about a 40 lber that went crazy jumping and we landed him quickly. It was about slack tide and little blacktip sharks went crazy. We tried to fish some muds for trout and not much action, and I talked the guys into calling it a shorter day since we did not have other bait and it was flat calm and very hot, not looking like conditions for a productive afternoon. When you catch 3 tarpon in the morning this time of year, sometimes it makes sense to just be happy with that and call it a day!
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
8/10/14 Cape Sable Tarpon Fishing in August
Today we were fishing off east cape sable out west of flamingo in everglades national park. Caught the mullet this morning and set up. Couple hours of falling tide left. Not red hot action but we got a couple goliath groupers and then hooked into a nice 50 lb tarpon that we landed after 20 minutes. After that we bent the light rods and got some dinner, and had action with other sharks and a cobia to finish the day. August tarpon fishing in islamorada is still possible, getting out early is always helpful! My departures are typically 6 AM in the summer time.
8/9/14 Mid August Islamorada Tarpon Fishing Report
Well I have had a couple days off and non-tarpon fishing trips. Though a last couple days I did fish for them it’s been tougher. Two days ago we did try some tarpon fishing and did not have any bites all day, had fresh mullet we tried some backcountry channels where we did not see any fish. Then off the beaches a boat was sitting where I like to fish but someone I knew. I gave him some bait and then he jumped 3 tarpon right next to us and we unfortunately couldn’t get a bite. No matter we still had a great day with big snook, goliath grouper, trout, snapper, sharks, and more. Today my angler really wanted tarpon so we focused on that all day. It was not easy fishing we again had good action but only a couple tarpon bites all day, back to back. Right when the tide started in we caught 1 30 lb fish, and then jumped another off immediatly after, and that was about it for the tarpon action. I saw fish first thing in the morning rolling on the falling tide, but would not feed. Though again we had good action with sharks including a hammerhead, big snook, several goliath grouper, and a cobia. I did try a couple other channels one in the backcountry and one close to home, but did not see any tarpon there. It’s getting tougher though it is almost mid-august. I’ll say it’s been a banner tarpon year all around!
