Little slower bite today than the past few days but was still OK. Had Stewart and John. We ran into the backcountry and had some fresh caught bait from early this morning. We caught 1 fish right away on the last of the falling tide. Waiting for it to come in and had to move around a bit. Eventually had one other bite we missed and caught a big bull shark plus got bit off by a few black tips. Later we ran to the bridges and set up and the tide there was just starting to fall. A good amount of fish close to the bridge, we had a cheap shot fairly soon after getting set up. Several tarpon came up eye balling the baits but would not eat. Eventually we hooked one on a dead bait and chased him through the bridge. We got him up to the bow of the boat but then he jumped and threw the hook, so a technical release as we were to the leader. After that we ran back near home and fished the channels. Didn’t see any fish but it’s been good there. We put baits out and again hooked one on dead bait soon after. Chased him down to land 3 out of 4 tarpon for the day. I don’t have many unhappy customers, especially on a day landing 3 tarpon, though it does happen once in a while and I always try to do the best I can. I would like to discuss it for a bit. Today John had preferred reeling lefty and we had changed two rods over to left handed for him, a live bait and dead bait rod. Unfortunately none of the bites came on his rod so Stewart got to catch them all. I even offered to switch the handle on the last fish after we hooked up but he did not want to do that. Anyways I could tell he was a little discouraged at the end of the day. Some guys will tell you that you can’t make the fish bite, well occasionally that is true though we did make them bite somewhat today even though it wasn’t red hot. But you really can’t make them bite on somebody’s certain rod. There are a few things you can try to encourage that to happen, which we did, but it just did not happen. Anyways in all truthfulness, you may not be able to cast and jig all day with a rod set up with the opposite hand your use to reeling with, though if a fish is hooked and your fighting him you should be able to fight him with either hand holding the rod and the other reeling. It may be a little awkward but I know people can do it… I can do it myself and I’ve never had any issue with it really before. When tarpon fishing your generally not having to cast and retrieve a bunch – your most often sitting and waiting for a fish to take the bait. When you get into switching handles and rods etc… especially when tarpon fishing, someone may be a little sour at the end of the day because as stated you can’t make them bite on a specific rod. Anyways just some food for thought. 3 for 4
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4/15/15 April Florida Keys Tarpon Fishing Report
More good fishing today. We were able to get a few good fresh baits early this morning. Ran into the backcountry again. Caught the start of the incoming tide. Wasn’t as red hot of a bite as yesterday but we got it done. Caught a couple in the first spot then the ‘red weed’ which often plagues us set in and we had to move. Luckily we were able to jump channels and it wasn’t too bad in the other channel. We jumped another tarpon and then caught a smaller fish of about 40 lbs. Also a couple big bull sharks which was cool. Then we ran back towards home tried looking for bait. Not much for big muds though we found a bunch of bait close to lower matecumbe, though it was spread thin on the surface. So when you would throw the net they would all dart away. We were able to get about 20 baits in an hour though and several throws. Anyways it paid off we caught a nice fish in the afternoon on a live bait to finish the day. 4 for 4
4/14/15 Great April Everglades Tarpon Fishing in the Florida Keys
Well sharks were the request for today. We had caught some good live bait early in the morning. So I decided to run in the backcountry to the channels where sharks would be just as likely as tarpon. We hooked a nice blacktip spinner shark right off the bat that jumped off. After that the tarpon took over, which was a good problem to have as I explained to my angler Steve. He agreed. Steve proceeded to land 6 out of 6 tarpon bites we had. All on wire with larger than normal hooks and tighter drags I would use for sharks. Amazing they all stayed buttoned and all but 1 we had all the way to the boat for pictures even. The nice incoming tide provided a good bite all morning. By noon we were done with that and did a little bit of stuff with the light rods then headed home. We did catch a handful of blacktip and nurse sharks too, so the target species was also acquired! 6 for 6
