Today I got back out tarpon fishing after just doing a half day yesterday of ‘rod bending’. I headed out into the backcountry as a buddy of mine said a lot of fish finally started showing up in the channels and other usual haunts the previous day. The fish way in the back off the beaches hadn’t been feeding too consistently so I was happy to hear there were some big schools of fish in new areas. Anyways we got there early around 8 AM and had a nice incoming tide. The sharks were around and we caught several of them and started seeing some tarpon rolling. They weren’t super happy though finally after an hour or so we hooked and caught a nice 50 lb fish. After that we proceeded to catch several more sharks and a few other odds and ends, and finally after about another 45 minutes when we were getting ready to pack it in, we hooked a large 110 lb tarpon! He put on quite a show and we got several nice jumps out of him, and he dragged us for almost a mile. After that we called it quits and finished the day catching a handful of trout and snappers. Fun day! I’ll be at it again tomorrow on a group trip and tarpon is the request, hopefully they will still be there! It sounds like Sunday we are getting a cold front and it will be in the low 60s for a couple nights. That will likely shut the tarpon down for a few days though it looks to be warming up right quick after that. Just when things were starting to get good… 2 for 2
3/14/16 + 3/15/16 Everglades Tarpon Fishing Report
3/14/16 – Today we fished all day for tarpon. I had caught some bait the previous afternoon in the muds on the way home which were fairly productive I put away but 40 baits. We tried locally in the channels nearby where I had seen lots of fish the morning before. Today though I didn’t see much we gave it a good 30-40 minutes. I ran into the backcountry and we tried some channels back there with no luck, and eventually made our way back off the mainland beaches. There were tons of tarpon back here, free jumping and busting all over as far as you could see. They were not eating however we fished for 2 hours pretty hard and moved several times. New arrivals that just aren’t wanting to feed. Eventually we left and tried another channel on the way home and we jumped one tarpon after about 5 minutes. We then made our way back towards Islamorada and caught a dozen mullet on the way and tried the live baits in the local channels. No luck however for us. We did catch a variety of sharks throughout the day that kept us semi busy however. 0 for 1
3/15/16 – Today we had tarpon on our minds again. I brought some shrimp for a backup plan as my anglers wanted a little bit of dinner too. We left early at 6:30 and ran right back towards the mainland beaches to try and get on those fish early. We got there a little after daybreak and it was the same scene – tarpon jumping and splashing everywhere you looked. Same deal though they just would not bite, we caught a few sharks and after the tide quit after a couple hours, we went and caught some tripletail. This was fairly good we got a couple for dinner and released several more. We then made our way back towards Islamorada to try the local channels again, however no luck there with tarpon we caught a few more sharks and that was it. 0 for 0
It’s been tough fishing for tarpon this is the latest start to the season I’ve seen since 2010 when we had that extreme cold winter. Though hopefully all these fish we’ve been seeing will move into the channels and throughout the bays and settle in. Once that happens it should get more consistent and they should start feeding more. Until then all you can do is try!
3/13/16 Half Day Tarpon Fishing in Islamorada
Today I fished a half day in the morning for tarpon. I had some leftover bait from the last few days thankfully. We tried the local channels and had the last couple hours of falling tide. First spot we didn’t see much but we did catch a sting ray. So I went on the other side near the ocean, and we started seeing tarpon rolling everywhere. I adjusted the boat and got where I wanted to be and we put our gear out. It took a little bit of enticing but after 30 minutes or so we finally had a hard zip on one bait. I’m sure it was a tarpon as right afterwards we checked the bait, put it back out, and then hooked one about 10 seconds later. A nice fish he put on a good show for us and we landed about a 75 lber. After that the tide quit and the fish quit showing, we gave it a little while longer but no dice. I did see a ball of mullet go by though they were gone quickly and it was overcast and muddy water so I couldn’t find them, but that would of been a nice score of bait! We ran back into the bayside and fished another channel and I saw some tarpon rolling in there which was great. We didn’t get any more bites though we did hook a large sawfish at the end of the trip which pulled us around for 10 minutes, though we broke him off he was too big to land on our tackle. Anyways glad to have landed one it looks like the weather will be fairly nice for a while so it should be ‘tarpon time!’ 1 for 2
