Tarpon fished again for a full day today. Luck was not on our side. We had decent action throughout the day but were not able to land a fish. We started around town in Islamorada. Had a bite right off the bat and I hooked the fish, handed it to my angler, and the fish turned and line went slack and he was gone. A heartbreaker though tough deal with one angler. He jumped another fish off an hour or so later and we had another fish grab and spit a mullet. Quite a few ‘cheap shots’ too, the tarpon were having fun with the mullets. After about 10:30 we ran into the backcountry to give it a try back there. We jumped one fish and caught several sharks and a cobia. We then hooked up on a fish that we fought for a couple minutes. Chased him down though we jumped him off about 30 feet from the boat. What a shame but that’s why they call it fishing not catching. Anyways we had good action as I said throughout the day getting 5 solid tarpon bites and several other attempts.
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5/4/14 May Florida Keys Tarpon Fishing Report
Still plugging away, not loads of fish the last few trips but getting 1 each time – we’ll take it! Went into the backcountry today. Same guys I had yesterday. We had a northerly wind but didn’t stop us from having a great day. We caught mullet back there around the islands. Black mullets mostly instead of the usual silvers. They are fine for dead bait, not great for live though. Anyways we caught plenty of blacktip sharks back there, a big lemon shark, and then 1 nice 70 lb tarpon. Caught some stuff for dinner after that, then tried this afternoon around town. Not much happening though then, weak incoming tides in Islamorada. Plus tons of boat traffic and morons on jet skis… have to love the weekends! Most the action has been on the falling tides as of late which are in the mornings, and in the late afternoon/evenings.
5/2/14 + 5/3/14 May Tarpon Fishing Islamorada
Very busy last couple days. Yesterday had a morning half day and an evening trip. Bait was tough in the AM we only caught a handful and the ‘bait guys’ we buy from normally did not get any. But we managed to catch 1 nice tarpon on live bait and had another zip us that we missed. The fish were acting a little funny. They continued to do so on my evening trip. I caught some bait mid day. We had several ‘cheap shots’ early on live baits, and connected with one right away fishing an ocean side channel. Later in the night we came back and drifted some of the local channels near home and had a couple fish rolling on the surface we drifted over that took some shots at the mullet but surprisingly never got it. So 1 tarpon in the AM, and 1 on the evening trip. Today we had a 3 boat trip and stuck around town all day tarpon fishing. It was very slow we were the only boat to catch a fish and jumped one other one off. The others reported a few cheap shots, but again the fish were not happy. We saw fish every place we fished, but just could not get them really going – but we were happy to catch 1. Tonight we had one cheap shot early, again bait was tough for me to get as I did not have time to catch any. We got rained on a bit and came back up the road here near home. Caught a nice 80 lb tarpon on dead bait, only real bite we had. These guys fished in the morning though and did not catch one, so again they were happy to get one. So again another nice fish on the day trip, and another nice one in the evening. Tonight we have a cool front kicking in, the wind swung around to the west and will be northwest next couple of days. May make the tarpon fishing tough, but the temperature should not drop. Once it swings back east maybe the fish will get happy again!
