June started off with a bang. I had Chris down with his dad and brother out fishing for tarpon. We were originally going to do a half day though I told the guys a 3/4 day would be much better as we can make the run into the everglades and have time to fish a couple different areas. They said that was cool so we did it. I had bait leftover from yesterday. We found some tarpon in some channels around flamingo, saw several roll right as we pulled up. Soon we hooked a tarpon but jumped him off and caught a big lemon shark. Later we hooked another tarpon and we landed him a nice 70 lb fish. After that things slowed down a little we caught a big jack, saw a few more tarpon roll and tried to get in front of them, but no more bites. The tide quit and we went to spot #2. Saw a few tarpon rolling once in a while, and caught several more sharks. Then we hooked up a nice tarpon and landed him. A few more sharks and then we hooked our final tarpon of the day and landed him as well. All in all a great day, I think the summer time fishing will be very good again this year! 3 for 4
5/31/16 End of May Tarpon Fishing Report
Well May is finally at a close and we finished with a good day of fishing. It’s nice things have been much more consistent for me the last couple weeks fishing in the backcountry/everglades. June should get better and last year that was my best month overall. Anyways today we had a bit of leftover bait though tried to get a little extra first thing. It wasn’t easy to come by I made several throws with my net but did managed to get another 8 baits at least. We tried the channel where we found them good yesterday but didn’t see the big school of fish that was there on the day before. There were a handful rolling around once in a while. We fished through the tide change, then looked around a bit and set back up to try again, though didn’t have a bite. The fish quit showing so I looked elsewhere. Checked a couple other areas though I didn’t even stop as I was wanting to see visible signs of fish with as calm as it was. Anyways we ran to another channel and I saw a free jumper so we set up near that. Soon a fish was rolling behind the boat, we caught a few sharks then hooked a tarpon. We got him on the leader though he jumped and threw the hook at that point, but a technical release at least. A few more sharks after that. We kept to our guns and looked for tarpon out off the beachs, though no signs of life, but we did get a big bull shark and nice lemon shark. We ran back towards flamingo to try another area, though not much luck in there didn’t see any fish nor any bites. Finally we tried the first spot again and we did see a few fish rolling again. With my last couple baits we used the trolling motor to get in front of them, and soon after we jumped a tarpon. Not what we wanted to happen but eventually we got lucky and got another bite, and finally got this tarpon to the boat to finish the day. 2 for 3
5/30/16 Everglades Tarpon Fishing Late May
Got out today with Bob and Bill down from North Carolina. Tarpon was on the itinerary and we went off into the everglades fishing for them. Had leftover bait though will be having to restock soon and will be tough with the glass calm weather and holiday boat traffic but hopefully can do it tomorrow AM. We tried the first channel and saw some fish rolling there but no bites out of them. Gave it a good hour and a a half as fish were rolling right by our baits but never a bite. We did catch a couple sharks however. After that we ran towards flamingo and tried an area where my buddy said he found some the previous day. He was right before we came off plane we saw several tarpon rolling so we anchored up and got in position. Soon we hooked a double header and both guys landed there fish though we only got Bills up for a pictures, little guy of 20 lbs. After that we proceeded to get 2 more fish to the boat, 2 more on the leader before the jumped off, and another one we missed entirely. Ended up catching five my best catch date so far this year! I’m glad summer time is here this is my favorite time of year hands down nowadays for tarpon fishing. 5 for 7
