3/10/17 March Backcountry Fishing Report

March is here and it's busy busy busy!  Lots of families down doing the spring break thing, and just about everything on the water that floats has been out there.  We've had some ups and downs with the weather, just getting back to some nice lighter wind days after having a few days of it blowing 30+mph, and a few more with it being 20+.  The air temperatures didn't drop dramtically, but with all the wind the backcountry waters dropped almost 15 degrees!  This obviously had some serious impacts on the fishing, though even in on the hard blowing some guides were able to get out and get it done.  I myself had some good days of snapper fishing around the islands during the wind, we got some nice size snappers a few days too up to 20 inches!   Also had some juvenile tarpon action which was a nice bonus, some nice 15-20 lb fish.  Capt. Mike Venezia also had some baby tarpon action, some very juvenile ones of only a few pounds - don't see those very often!  Capt. Jim Willcox, Capt. Bill Bassett, and Capt. Mike Bassett reported some good snook and drum fishing the last couple days since the wind stopped cranking.  The snook didn't seem to mind the water temperature drop luckily, and of course the redfish and drum love that, so it was a little bit more like winter time fishing.  Capt. Skip Nielsen got a nice tarpon a few days ago despite the very cold water too.  Today we had some good action with trout and snappers in the bay on a half day, as did Capt. Jeff Oughton, Capt. Sid Bryant, and Capt. Jeff Beeler.  Before the crazy blows, we had some decent mixed bag days.  I had John and Jan Sholze out for 3 days, we caught a bunch of mackerel one morning, and then two tarpon later in the afternoon along with a variety of sharks including a nice hammerhead.  The following day was a bunch of trout, and a handful of snook and a nice redfish.  Before that the mackerel were still biting very well.  Mackerel could likely still be on the 'fishing menu' with the chillier water temps for a while longer.  Looks like in the middle of next week we are getting into the mid 60s again, so they will probably enjoy  that.  Not good news for our tarpon fishery with the impending cold, but hopefully it'll start getting right again maybe by next weekend.  This weekend though it may be a possibility, as the winds are light and things are warming up.  There is plenty of fish to be had, give us a call if you are around and we may be able to get you out on the water.  Evening tarpon trips could be a possibility starting now too.  305-664-2461

Capt. Rick Stanczyk