4/1/13 April Islamorada Fishing Report

Well here we are it's definitely spring time here again in Islamorada, the temperatures have warmed back up to normal this time of year and the fish are biting!  April Islamorada Fishing today and yesterday has been much better in the backcountry with water temps back in the low to mid 70s.  Rich and Deb Riolo fished with Capt. Skip Nielsen which they do every year.  Rich is the son of Doc who worked at Bud n' Mary's for many years.  Today they released 3 tarpon from 90 to 140 lbs on live mullet on fox fishing tackle.  Debbie also caught a tarpon several nights ago when the water was still chilly (64 degrees) at sunset at 'Doc's Hole.'  The tarpon fishing in islamorada is really going to heat up now as plenty of fish were spotted today in a a variety of different areas, also the live mullet are being delived in the morning and evening so a variety of baits will be available on all tarpon trips.  The past couple days in the backcountry Capt. Rick Stanczyk has fished near the gulf.  Yesterday with Stu Hieshman we caught several spanish mackerel along with some snappers in the morning which have still been around a bit with the cooler water.  We found plenty of triple tail later in the day, and caught several sharks on a wreck and also got a nice 80 # goliath grouper.  Today had Dave and Roseann, we caught plenty of nice trout, saw a bunch of tarpon but no bites out of them though did get half a dozen sharks.  We played with the triple tails again and got a nice 10# fish, as well as a big 30 # cobia on light spin gear that we released.  Capt. Bill Bassett went deep in the backcountry looking for redfish, they did find a few though the bite was not red hot.  Capt. Mike Bassett had action with the spanish mackerels this morning, and also caught several blacktip sharks.  Capt. Vic Gaspeny has reported a good early morning tarpon bite, fishing the islamorada bridge tarpon fishing in the wee hours.  Capt. Ben Ekblom reported catching a big 130 lb tarpon with his wife last night as well, they also caught a big red grouper however released it since grouper season just opened today!  Islamorada grouper fishing should be very good as the fish have had a chance to mature through the closure, however we always like to advocate catch and release whenever possible on the groupers!