4/6/11 Hot night tarpon fishing bite in Islamorada

Capt. Skip Nielsen reported tarpon were biting tonight. I had Joe and Nancy Stavola from New Jersey. They are staying in the penthouse at Bud n' Mary's. Their 2 sons fished as well. Everybody released a tarpon and then Joe Jr. hooked the fifth tarpon of the night. This one we battled for 1 and 1/2 hours and the fish was still strong as we held the leader at 8:30pm. We estimated the Tarpon over 150lbs! All the bites were on live mullet.  Capt. Ed Cale also reported several bites and caught several fish as well!

4/5/11 More great florida keys fishing in April!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk had party of a large group that is fishing at Bud n' Mary's yesterday along with 7 other guides.  Several caught tarpon, plus plenty of trout, ladyfish, jacks, snappers, etc...  Capt. Rick caught this nice 100 lb tarpon, and also this 300 lb goliath grouper which was a special treat!  Also check out the picture the 'Kalex' caught of this 76 lb cobia!!!  A monster fish!  The party boat 'Miss Islamorada' fished today and came in early, catching their limit of yellowtail!  Great fishing in the florida keys for this April!

Great April Tarpon Fishing for Capt. Skip Nielsen

Capt. Skip reported yesterday that he had Deb and Rich Riolo the night before. They are staying upstairs over the tackle shop this week. They come down every year first week of April and last night released 3 Tarpon. We had lots of action.Tarpon were blasting our live mullet and "cheap shotting" us. Deb and Rich managed to hook 3 out of 10 bites. Great sunset Tarpon bite!  They also fished today and caught 4 tarpon in the backcountry!  They got DNA samples of one tarpon Deb caught for research purposes!  They also caught this toothy cuda!

Capt. Jim Willcox also caught a toothy cuda on a half day the day before, check this guy out!!!

4/1/11 Backcountry tarpon fishing islamorada

Islamorada backcountry fishing guide Captain Ted Wilson reported no April 1st foolery going on when spring breaker Paul Marley successfully released two large tarpon (up to 90 lbs) on Friday night. The college freshman wasted no time reeling in two nice fish all within the early 5 pm hour. Paul was exceptionally pleased by his conquest that for him went far beyond the thrill of catching the fish. You see, he was able to one up, or actually two up, his brother Rhodes who had been in Islamorada to tarpon fish during his high school spring break just two weeks prior and had unfortunately gone home without a catch. Lucky for Paul, not only were the tides right for his big spring break bite, early April typically produces more tarpon action than March. Congrats Paul on a great night of fishing!