4/4/13 Great tarpon fishing!

Today the islamorada tarpon fishing was really good.  Lots of mullet around in the morning and afternoons.  We caught 4/4 this morning in the backcountry by 10:00 AM.  Anglers had enough so we finished the day catching trout, ladyfish, and snappers.  This evening we caught 4/9 around the local bridges mostly on live mullet on top.  Very exciting bites and strikes, mostly smaller fish though did get one 65 lber.  Incoming tide on both trips and live fresh mullet for bait.  That's a total of 8/13 fish!  Capt. John Johansen and Capt. Ben Ekblom also had some tarpon action this evening.  Today Capt. Jim Willcox had lots of sharks, a big 'mud marlin', and a monster hammerhead as well.  The islamorada backcountry fishing will likely be tough the next few days as another front is coming and suppose to blow 25-30 tomorrow, but luckily not getting very cold so hopefully as soon as the wind lays down it will get back to normal.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903
rick@seethefloridakeys.net 

3/19/13 March tarpon fishing in Islamorada

Water temperatures are back to a normal spring like level and there have been a handful of tarpon around.  Normally march tarpon fishing charters are the norm especially as we near April.  Today Capt. Ben Ekblom, one of Bud n' Mary's new guides who grew up fishing as a mate there and more recently ran one of the Tail Walker boats in Marathon the last several years, fished for tarpon for the day.  The action with big fish aka tarpon, sharks, etc.. has not been hot and heavy but picked up a bit today.  Capt. Ben did manage 1 out of 2 fish and with tarpon any day you catch one is a good day!  They also had some action with sharks.  Yesterday also Capt. Skip Nielsen reported catching 1 tarpon in the backcountry, along with some other sharks.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk had a large 400+ lb goliath grouper yesterday as well as a large bull shark.  Fishing Islamorada in March gives a variety of fish so just because tarpon are difficult there are always other options.  Today Capt. Bill Bassett found some nice trout close by as well as mangrove snappers as the rain was intimidating though in the Islamorada area never really bothered us after day break.  I like to tell people it is rare that we really lose a day to rain here in the florida keys, most often it passes through and you can fish your way around it 90% of the time.  The backcountry fishing in islamorada will continue to pick up as the water temperatures are stabilizing, this means the tarpon bite will get better and better.  Also options in the gulf will open up as well as the everglades.  We are getting a minor front over the weekend, but looks like it will not be very cold so the water temps should not drop drastically.