March fishing in Islamorada

[syxx]

Spring is here in Islamorada and so is the start of florida keys tarpon fishing. We've had luck lately fishing in the evenings as well as during the day. The evening falling tide is a good bet with live crabs, we got this nice 80 lber plus a couple other missed bites one night last week. Today we got another nice 75-85 lb fish during the day fishing a live mullet in the backcountry. We also caught loads of trout, ladyfish, and jacks, plus a blacktip shark all in the same area. Later in the day we ran out in the gulf and saw one nice cobia unfortunately he spit the bait and never was to be seen again. We ran further out and found the tripletails swarming, caught about 15 or so including our limit of keepers. Tripletail fishing is lots of fun, run and gun running the crab trap lines and sight fishing for 'door mats' a.k.a. big triple tail laid up on the surface! If your thinking of coming to Islamorada, the next few months are prime time for all kinds of fishing in the islamorada backcountry!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Tarpon fishing in Islamorada

[sidelock]

Isn't it illegal to boat a tarpon in Florida ?

[RUSTYNTABATHA]

to kill it reqires a permit / tag. i think catch and release is still ok.

[sidelock]

Originally Posted by RUSTYNTABATHA

to kill it reqires a permit / tag. i think catch and release is still ok.

That's not the point. It is illegal to boat a tarpon in Florida ! In other words you can't take a tarpon out of the water and bring it in the boat.

[WildBill]

That's not the point. It is illegal to boat a tarpon in Florida ! In other words you can't take a tarpon out of the water and bring it in the boat.

Bull Hockey! just be careful with them when you raise them up for a photo, then revive them and they swim off happily ever after.


oldtarponkillerbill

[sidelock]

Originally Posted by WildBill

That's not the point. It is illegal to boat a tarpon in Florida ! In other words you can't take a tarpon out of the water and bring it in the boat.

Bull Hockey! just be careful with them when you raise them up for a photo, then revive them and they swim off happily ever after.


oldtarponkillerbill

I'm quessing the one in the last picture with the gaff and the blood trickling down his face did'nt quite swim off too happily !

[DonV]

He was much happier than the one in the second picture.........

[sidelock]

Originally Posted by DonV

He was much happier than the one in the second picture.........

But not quite as happy as the one in the first photo ! LOL.

[infanterene]

What is the point of keeping them? They are not edible right? Im not judging but just trying to understand.

I hope to catch one this year.

[DonV]

I'm 99% sure the issue was...legal beagle....you are not supposed to even bring the fish out of the water, even for pics, which is pretty much BS. In any case for the amount of work involved to catch one of these I have no problem lifting for a picture then a nice quiet release!! My two cents!