Tarpon fishing has been good the last couple of days. Bait has still been tough there has not really been any significant schools of mullet around. I had two morning and two evening trips the last couple days. Unfortunately after yesterday morning I realized I had a leak in my boat, some problem when they were installing some new equipment. Anyways I extended my night trip last night with the guys who also had me this morning and we just cancelled this morning so I could get the boat fixed. Anyways we fished mostly crabs yesterday and we caught 1 nice tarpon in the morning around the bridges along with a few sharks and a big red grouper. One other possible tarpon bite not sure what it was though. Last night we fished from 4 to 10 and we went 3 for 3 on tarpon. All decent size fish of 80-90 lbs. They were all hard fighters though we spent about 45 minutes on each fish. I was glad the action was good and the guys were OK doing that and canning this morning. Tonight I got the boat back in working order and fished the usual 4 to 8 night trip. We went 1 for 3 on tarpon. Had some action on mullet early on the last of the incoming tide, and had one eat a crab drifting near sunset on the falling water. Anyways good overall fishing using traditional techniques. 1 for 1, 3 for 3, 1 for 3.
4/10/15 April Islamorada Tarpon Fishing Report
Had a half day today. We didn’t have luck with bait this morning. Also this afternoon I caught a bull shark in my net which tore a nice hole in it. Bait is still very tough hopefully once we get away from the full moon it will get easier! Anyways we ran into the backcountry where I was yesterday since it was so good then. We had the last of the incoming tide. Sharks bit us up we caught several black tips and a nurse shark. No tarpon and we fished for an hour until tide slacked. I ran over to the other channel nearby and we waited for the tide to turn, quick turnaround. Anyways we sat for about 30 minutes and things were looking grim plus we didn’t have too much longer to fish since it was only a half day. Eventually we got our bite though a nice 85 lb tarpon! Very funny bite too he did not run very hard he shook his head and almost thought it was another nurse shark. Anyways we landed him and then we had a few minutes left so I said we could give it a little longer. It paid off we had another bite pretty soon after and landed another 75 lb tarpon. It’s funny how it can go from balls to the wall one day fishing to hoping you’ll just get one bite the next – but that’s fishing! We were very happy to get two tarpon, and like I told the customers I’ll take catching 2 just about any day! Anyways two morning and evening half days the next two days so i’ll be back with some more reports soon. 2 for 2
4/9/15 Everglades April Tarpon Fishing Report
Good fishing for us today. I had Steve and Ray. Steve and his girlfriend fished with me a couple days ago (yesterday I had a day off finally). We ran way in the backcountry trying to get into a hot tarpon bite. We found quite a few fish but it was very rough and could not really get them to bite. We hopped around and caught a bunch of sharks and a nice 40 lb goliath grouper. Today we made up for the tarpon. The boys landed 5 out of 8 fish all on fresh mullet we caught yesterday and this morning. The bait has been a little tough lately many of the live bait guys are struggling to get a few together to sell. There have been a few big balls of bait around but you have to be there at the right place, right time, before they get hammered by the commercial mullet guys. We ran into some on the way home today and took a little time to catch 3 dozen which was great. We also caught a 30 lb cobia after we finished with the tarpon this morning plus a few ladyfish and trout. Great day! 0 for 0 and then 5 for 8.
