April Fishing in Islamorada

April is here and so are the big tarpon!  We had a lot of variation in weather throughout March including high winds that would change daily plus some late cold fronts.  This led to some inconsistent fishing with the tarpon however we still caught a decent number of fish.  Just not quite as good as the previous years.  Though that could mean good things for the rest of ‘prime time’ tarpon season which is April through July.  A later start often means fishing stays better longer this time of year as the fish aren’t already beat up and pounded on in the early part of the spring.  Anyways yes the tarpon have shown up and are in many of the usual haunts – both in the backcountry and locally around Islamorada.  In the backcountry there have been a good mix of sharks as well as the occasional cobia, goliath grouper, sawfish, and other various sea monsters!  Locally the tarpon have started to feast on live mullet which is a truly spectacular site to see.  Nothing beats watching a live mullet run for his life as a 100 lb fish is doing his best to gobble him down.  We’ve had fish in all size ranges from 30 lbs up to 130 lbs.  Last week one of the largest fish I’ve caught this year dragged us around for 2 hours and even through a set of bridge pilings!  We had to throw the rod overboard on a float to float it through the bridge, and we got it on the other side and still landed the fish.  The last few days we’ve landed multiple tarpon which is good and the bite seems to be getting a little more predictable.  Hopefully the weather will stay warm as it should and the fishing should be good the next several months for the silver king.  I do that more than anything else this time of year.  I am booked pretty heavily the next couple months but I do have some evenings available.  I am generally not doing evenings after my full day trips as I get a little too burned out and it is tough to keep up with the quality of fishing I like to provide my clients (catching enough bait, etc…).  However I will be doing some short notice when I know conditions are good and I have plenty of bait available.  Drop me a line if you are looking to get out, and don’t forget June and July are just around the corner and those are some of my favorite months of the year to fish for tarpon.  It doesn’t book up quite as fast as April and May so you can probably get something in the books a few weeks to a month out.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk