Back in town after a quick trip this weekend to watch my sister in law get married. Had Pete Davidson and crew out today and they are fishing with me the next four days as well. We headed out early into the backcountry, fairly slick calm conditions with falling tide mostly all day. We found some mullet in one of the summer time spots back there which was nice, hopefully they’ll be sticking around from now on! We caught them then hit the channels. Nothing in the first stop though the tide was just quitting there. The next channel further out the tide was falling and we saw some fish. Set up and gave it a little while, catching a few sharks, then finally got a nice 50 lb tarpon. After that we didn’t have any more tarpon action as the fish seemed to settle down. We ran out off the mainland to take a peek, didn’t see much and looked all over, finally the last stop we saw some rolling. We set up and tried, just more sharks, made 3 moves but never had a tarpon bite… Tough it looked like it was going to be real good but not to be. On the way home we hit another channel, the wind was blowing slightly out of the west now. Tide was getting near the end, we gave it an hour because I had seen fish on bottom machine though we saw none roll. Finally in the last 20 minutes, we hooked another tarpon about 35 lbs or so. Great way to finish the day, always a great to catch a couple tarpon even though the bite was a little slow. Hopefully it’ll get better but the winds are suppose to kick up tomorrow then by Wednesday it says it’ll be 15-20… Tired of the wind but at least it’s out of the east. 2 for 2
5/11/17 May Tarpon Fishing in Islamorada Florida Keys
Got out with Will and his father today we left early to try and get the sunrise bite. Today the tarpon had moved around on us though, where I had found some early yesterday morning there was nothing much at all. We fished a bit and caught a shark, never saw a fish roll. I looked in some other channels close by, did see one tarpon roll, but that was about it. After a little bit we ran and tried another area. We found a few more fish here… not a ton but maybe a couple dozen, rolling very spread out. We caught a bunch of sharks in the first area, then moved a bit further down and fished some more. Not quite as many sharks, but no tarpon bites. We even had a couple tarpon roll right in between our lines… frustrating! After that I ran out and tried another area which had been a little slower as of late, but didn’t have much else to look at as I talked to a few other guides and nobody had seen much. We hoped the tide would change once there and that fish would get happier. We got there on slack tide, and saw a good handful of fish busting and jumping, so that was a good sign. We waited out the tide and once it got running, the tarpon started to bite! We caught a couple fish, not huge ones but nice 40 lbers. Will hooked a couple after that but unfortunately missed both bites, the second one of course was right when he was getting a drink and put the rod in the rod holder… that’s when they always get ya! Not that you can’t hook a fish from the rod holder, but it definitely cuts down on the hookup percentages. Anyways it was a fun day and glad we got on the tarpon eventually. I’m out of town for the weekend for a wedding, will be back fishing on Monday. I have the same client for all 5 days next week, tarpon is on the menu so hopefully they’ll be cooperative! 2 for 4
5/10/17 May Tarpon Fishing Islamorada Full Day
Got back on the full day routine today and we had a much better day. We found tarpon right off the bat and caught one and lost one in the first 30 minutes of the day. Plenty of shark activity too. After the tide died we ran out in search of more tarpon off the mainland but didn’t see a whole lot. A few jumpers off in the distance, tried to track them down, but never had any bites aside from a few more sharks. We hit another area on the way in from there and it just looked so pretty… Nice incoming tide with green water. We saw a school of permit float by but couldn’t get them to bite! Then we hooked double header tarpon which was chaos for a bit, but we landed both fish thankfully. Then had a few cobias swim up to the boat too but they were spooked by my trolling motor before we could get a rod in our hands. Then we caught another tarpon and a few more sharks! Great day compared to the last couple, but nowadays I really like having the full days as you get to fish different areas, different tides, etc… From here on out I recommend a 3/4 or full day for anyone looking for tarpon through the summer. 4 for 5
