Had a morning half day and an evening trip today. Our morning was tough we managed to catch bait good and got a nice 7 AM departure. However the fish were very finicky. First place we stopped where I’d been having luck the last week or so every morning. Saw a few fish but not any activity on our baits, no cheap shots or busts or nothing! Eventually we left and ran down the road near the bridges. Saw some fish rolling there though same thing, just not very interested in eating. We fished hard and to no avail. I tried another spot in the bay and more of the same saw some fish laying on the bottom but could not get them interested. Finally we ran back near home and I saw a good group of fish in a channel I normally don’t fish so we gave it a shot. We got ate up by big jacks and managed to land a few of those, and we finally did get one tarpon bite though he was off as quickly as he was on. We managed to land a few sharks too. Gave it an extra 30 minutes but fish just didn’t seem happy. Tonight was a different story we had action right away and eventually hooked a nice 100 lb fish. Landed him and went back to it. The tarpon weren’t pulling you out of the boat, but we were getting bit every 20-30 minutes. Missed a few fish and then eventually hooked another 90 lb fish that almost spooled us. We had to get up on plane chasing him but we got him. Ended the night 2 for 6 or so. 0 for 1 and 2 for 6
4/22/15 More good islamorada tarpon fishing
Thought we may have gotten rained out today but not the case. It poured until a little after 6 AM but then was nice and calm the rest of the day. We had some good baits saved from yesterday afternoon and I went right to fishing with them. We had some tarpon up pretty quickly right close by. We had several cheap shots and probably a half dozen solid bites. We hooked and landed two fish, all were smaller fish hence the tougher time getting the hooks in. Thes ones we landed were both about 40 lbs. Perfect for my anglers who were more interested in getting fish to cooperate for some good pictures rather than just catching numbers. They got some great boatside pics on their digital SLR cameras. Anyways after that we ran into the backcountry for some shark fishing and that was very good, we even jumped a couple more tarpon back there. Solid fishing today throughout. 2 for 8
4/21/15 April tarpon fishing in the Keys
More tarpon action today. I had Jason and James again from yesterday. We had the last hour or so of falling tide first thing this morning. We caught bait good at first light and went out to fish. Did the same routine as yesterday since it worked well. We were in fish right away we missed one smaller fish and soon after hooked another. A 30 lber we got to the boat but then he pulled off though we had leader on him. A little later we had a nice 80 lb fish eat a surface bait and took off. We chased him for quite a ways and finally got him to the boat. Didn’t cooperate for pictures but we already had some good ones from yesterday. After that fight the tide had switched though seemed like things turned off. We fished another 40 minutes or so and did not see much of anything, no fish rolling nor other boats hooked up. So we decided to run down the road. We set up at the next spot and soon had a fish up and flash a bait, unfortunately the bait had died and the fish thought twice about eating it. A boat nearby jumped a tarpon and we fished a little while longer. Right when I was about to call it quits and move we hooked a nice 90 lb fish. We chased him down and got him to the boat. After that we caught a big cuda and had some others cut us off we so moved to the bridge. Lots of boats fishing there and we did see a few tarpon busting and rolling, though nobody hooked up. We gave it an hour or so and didn’t see much happening so we decided to cut it to a 3/4 day. Anyways 3 tarpon landed not bad though not quite as good of action as the previous day. Maybe we’re a little spoiled! There was plenty of bait around the last couple afternoons I went and stocked up afterwards. Tomorrow sounds like it may rain a little hopefully we’ll be able to get some fishing in though! 3 for 4.
