Tough day for us again today. Worked hard at it yesterday I spent 2 hours catching mullet which have been very difficult to get, but was able to catch about 70 or so though I had to split half of them with my bait catching partner. I ran out into the backcountry for our half day which I normally don’t do but since the fishing was so slow locally I figured we’d have a better shot. Didn’t see a whole lot for tarpon out there even though it was slick calm, the fish must’ve gotten pushed out with that cold front last weekend and just haven’t come back in yet… possibly due to the full moon I don’t know? Anyways we saw a couple roll in the first hour and a half, that was it. Tried moving around a bit. We did catch several blacktip sharks which kept it interesting and got a nice hammerhead too. When the tide turned and came in I stayed an extra 30 minutes, and a few tarpon did float by I could see and marked on my machine. Though we didn’t get any bites but we did get a lemon shark and a sawfish! So at least we had action and a variety of sea creatures, beats sitting around locally and possibly not catching anything. Next couple days are full days so I’ll have time to fish some different areas on different tides and hopefully we’ll stumble into a few hungry tarpon. I’m out of town Friday for a few days but will be back next Monday fishing a customer for 5 days straight for tarpon. So hopefully it picks back up! 0 for 0
5/8/17 May Half Day Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
Had a half day today and again tomorrow too. Fishing was very tough, bait wasn’t too easy though we managed to catch about a dozen mullet this morning. Most of the live bait guys didn’t have any either, a couple weren’t working today due to various reasons, and the third just hadn’t had much luck finding them. Anyways we looked in a few spots and didn’t see much for tarpon. It was fairly calm and light winds so figured we’d see them if they were around. Finally we found some around one of the bridges. The weed was very bad after the front a few days ago, and where the fish were it was almost unfishable as we had to clear weed off of our baits every minute or two! We moved around 3 or 4 times, eventually the weeds subsided in other parts of the bridge. However the tarpon seemed to be moving around as we quit seeing them soon after we’d get set up. We checked another area and then moved to the far side of the bridge on the way back and did have a ‘cheap shot’ – a nice tarpon came up and exploded on the bait but missed it. Alas we realized there was weed again on the bait so maybe this made him change his mind… Anyways plenty of fish around us for the last hour and we had the tide until we quit fishing, but no more activity. The tarpon definitely weren’t very happy, could be acting weird due to the incoming full moon in a couple days. I spent a couple hours rounding up some more bait this afternoon in tough, slick calm conditions. Hopefully it will pay off for tomorrow though I’m not sure if we’ll be tarpon fishing or not. I may run into the backcountry even though we’ll only have a couple hours to fish, may be a better shot at catching one regardless. I definitely wish we had a full day scheduled for tomorrow but we’ll do the best we can! 0 for 0
5/7/17 Everglades Florida Keys Tarpon Fishing in May
Got out with Justin and Rick today. They are down with another big corporate group that also fished last night and is doing some fishing tomorrow too. We went out into the backcountry, it was a little chilly with the late cold front that hit us yesterday. Winds were not too bad but out of the north still. Water temperatures dropped into the mid 70s, down from the low 80s, so a significant cool down. We saw a few tarpon in the first stop but no bites, did get a bull shark and a blacktip though. We ran out further where the tarpon had been good several days ago before the cold front came. Hoped to see a load of them out there, but never saw a scale! It was pretty muddy too from all the pre-frontal west wind the last couple days. We did get a big blacktip though. We rode around for a bit looking for tarpon, didn ‘t see much, so we worked our way back to where we started this AM. The tide had changed and I saw a few signs of fish. Rick ended up catching two tarpon in the 40 lb range, good fighters for their size! After an hour or so though, they kind of dried up. We tried further in the channel but didn’t see much. We ended the day catching some nice trout, ladyfish, and got a tripletail that was floating down the channel as well! All in all a great day. Have a couple half day tarpon trips coming up, hopefully can find a few fish around town. 2 for 2
