3/9/13 March Backcountry Fishing Report

Well backcountry fishing islamorada has been a little tough this past week with the severe drop in temperature this late.  However there has still been a few good catches to report.  Today Capt. Mike Bassett had Scott and Wendy from Indiana fishing in the islamorada backcountry.  They caught this nice redfish plus a few others, as well as Wendy's nice snook!  They also caught some nice keeper size trout and sheepshead as well later in the afternoon.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished the patch reefs on the offshore side and repoted a good bite of variety early... nice size mangrove snappers, yellowtails, porgies, grunts, a few small hogfish, and a few groupers as well.  Later in the day we found some big muds nearby with some big ladyfish, and also caught a bonnethead shark out of there.  Found some tarpon rolling in the afternoon in the channels but unfortunately did not get any bites out of them.  Islamorada tarpon fishing in march should steadily pick up as we get some offshore breezes warming the water temperatures up!  Capt. Skip Nielsen did report catching a big tarpon yesterday as well as a big blacktip shark fishing the local channels with fresh live mullet.  By mid week if the weather does what its suppose to, we should have some good opportunities for night tarpon fishing islamorada as the tides will be ideal too.  Capt. Rick has a trip wednesday evening so will have a report!