Well got back on the tarpon horse after taking a bit of time off from it. We had a couple different late cold fronts last week which slowed down the tarpon fishing. A little over a week ago for 2 nights it got down in the mid 60s and the water temps dropped to 67 or so around town here. That made fishing for tarpon very slow for a few days. It did pick back up for a couple days when the water temps got back in the mid 70s, but then another minor front dropped it down to low 70s again. The last couple of days people have been getting a few bites here and there but the the water temp was 72 this morning still on the chilly side. The water hasn’t had a chance to really warm up as its been blowing a good 10-15 knots every day just about. Anyways I was doing lots of patch reef fishing which was great action and good eating, a good bet for my half day trips that were not dead set on catching tarpon anyways. Today though we did a full day and I had a load of bait from yesterday ready to go. We had to look around a bit, caught a few sharks and had one cheap shot early from a tarpon on a live bait. Then finally we found some on the ocean side that were happy with the hard incoming tide with the wind behind it. We had 4 solid bites, missing a couple, losing a big fish on a lobster trap buoy, and then finally stuck 1 and caught him! Nice fish of 75 lbs. We also had another probably half dozen cheap shots that did not eat the baits but were busting and flashing them which was entertaining. That was all in about 1.5 hours. After that the tide slowed and the bite slowed with it and we did some other stuff. But a great day overall, I have a half day tarpon trip tomorrow so we will be giving it a shot again. No cold weather in the forecast so things should warm up a bit and get better.
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3/25/14 Prefrontal florida keys tarpon fishing in march
Another front is heading in. Lots of rain and storms around this morning. We ventured out for a half day tarpon fishing. Got a little wet and the lightning scared us. We were fighting a fish and it started pouring with thunder and lightning nearby as other boats were all leaving. But after 10 minutes it was just a drizzle. So we stayed out and ended up catching 2 out of 4 tarpon plus a big blacktip shark. Not bad – beats sitting in the hotel room! Though tonight and tomorrow night it’s suppose to get down in the mid 60s so the tarpon bite may slow down for a few days though it will still be possible. Just likely not as good as it has been.
3/24/14 More great tarpon fishing the florida keys in march
Northwest light breeze this morning. Ran into the backcountry again. Caught a little bit of bait but it was tough and had 2 day leftovers which were still in good shape. In the backcountry we caught 3 out of 4 tarpon including a nice 100 lber. All on the incoming tide between 8:15 and 11:15. Did some other stuff after that and came home, another fantastic day tarpon fishing in islamorada. We saw some big balls of bait mullet on the way home near the docks so afterwards I went back out with a fellow captain and we loaded up on fresh mullet for the next few days. It’s nice this time of year when the big schools of mullet show up and it’s easy to load up for a few days!