Well we’ve had a windy weekend today it started honking out of the south about 20 mph and tomorrow looks like 25-30 plus a bunch of rain!  So I dunno if we’ll make it out tomorrow but today we were able to get our day in and had a good one.  We caught our bait and were able to hide in some of the local canals around Islamorada to do our fishing.  These canals can be home to plenty of the same gamefish we catch in the backcountry such as tarpon, snook, grouper, snapper, sharks, and more.  And the nice things is its closer to home and once you get in there you are protected from the wind and waves.  Not many people actually fish in there either so I’ve been learning it more & more and it’s a good bet to get away from the crowds.  This was one of the tarpon we’ve released on recent trips.  Note we normally do not lift tarpon out of the water but ones under 40 inches you are allowed to lift up for a quick picture before a healthy release.  Give me a shout if you want to get out fishing I’ve got some days open in May!

Well been so busy it’s hard to keep up with reports and I did have some family in town for a week or so and took a little break.  But got back on the water on some paid trips a few days ago.  We did get into some very nice local Islamorada snook one day.  These beauties love to eat live pilchards which we often catch in the morning on our way out.  Snook fight awesome on light tackle and our a good way to break up a day of local fishing in the Keys especially when you are sitting waiting for tarpon most of the day.  I just opened my May calendar so come book a day it’s still a very busy time and still awesome fishing!

Well we got another mongo mangrove snapper.  This guy was legit 20+ inches!  Been nice to have some of these larger mangs around they really are a blast to catch and so good for table fare.  Tarpon fishing is still good we went the other night and did not land one but we hooked 5 and did get a few sharks.  Good action though and of course sometimes you don’t always land your fish thats the way it goes.  This week we have some major weather tuesday and wednesday particularly but the whole week looks like higher chances of rain – somewhat of an early season tropical storm.  So we might be moving some trips around or cancelling but I may have some last minute availability if anyone wants to fish around the weather which we can often do here.

Well today we were rewarded with a pretty special catch.  Check out the size of this snapper!  The cool thing is young Jack was the angler on this beast.  Snapper fishing is really one of my favorite things to do as you get some awesome fish for dinner and then the challenge of trying to trick the larger specimens into biting just makes it downright fun.  Sometimes we have to go to super light/long leaders, sometimes no weight, sometimes live bait, sometimes dead… they just keep you guessing and just when you think you have them figured out they outsmart ya!  We also caught a nice 40 lb tarpon too so just an epic half day trip for us.

Great morning trip and success with ‘dinner & a show’ as we like to call it! This is where we do some rod bending action for fish we can eat such as snapper. Lots of fun taking the time to pluck out larger ones too as it is challenging. They are great tablefare honestly you wont find much better especially if you prefer mild fish. Then we focus on the big rods and if were lucky we get a nice tarpon which are catch and release but put up a great battle, often jumping and putting on a ‘show.’

Got out with Tobias for a half day fishing trip. We caught live pilchards to start our fishing day. Great bait to have for catching all sorts of inshore species. But the big snappers really love them too. We had our full of good size snappers catching our limit for dinner. Topped it off with a beastly one too that really made the trip! Tarpon fishing is good but we have a lot else to offer fishing in the Florida keys for sure.

Well had an awesome day the other day.  I had a young anglers and father and we ended up catching a tarpon and a bonefish.  We tried to top it off with a permit for a SLAM but we couldn’t make that happen unfortunately but still good none the less.  Dad was stoked his son got to catch the tarpon and bone however…  We did get plenty of nice snappers too.  Fishing is just good right now and the next few months the tarpon fishing is about as good as you can ask for.  If you are looking to fish we can do a morning, full day, or evening trip and get you on the fish!

Capt. Trent has been putting it on ’em lately!  More great tarpon action on a recent evening trip.  Live mullet were getting popped frequently which is always part of the fun…  You get to witness a 1lb mullet swimming for his life as a 100 lb fish decide the best way to go about devouring him.  They often jump away trying to survive, or get thrown in the air as the tarpon makes his move.  It’s just good old fashion fun to witness.  Unfortunately sometimes it is harder to get an actual hook in the tarpon as the baits jump around so much sometimes things get twisted around funny, but when we want to hook one often we slide a dead bait out there which has a much better hookup ratio.  These lucky anglers got their hands on a beautiful silver king on an evening tarpon fishing trip in islamorada a couple nights ago.  April and May are the prime tarpon months so take advantage while you can… June and July can still be really good too of course.  And the night trip option is a good one as the fishing often gets better as you get closer to sunset which is considered ‘prime time’ when tarpon naturally feed as it gets dark.

Well we had a slick calm day yesterday with tons of tarpon showing up seemingly everywhere from the backcountry all the way down the oceanside of Islamorada! The bridges are getting stacked as well as the local channels and the fish should start pushing out of the backcountry though that can still be good for a few more weeks. Every year is different so who knows but that seems to often be the case. Our last three trips have all yielded a tarpon which is awesome! We’ve had a few other bites as well but these two beauties we got to the boat for pictures which is always a plus. Mullet are swarming as they are spawning right now too so the bait is easy which is often the hardest part of the fishing day. I’m usually out there catching it in the mornings early I always like to have a good stock of bait when I can! April & May evening tarpon trips are often a good bet there isn’t much better than being out there watching the sun going down and knowing it’s the ‘golden hour’ when the tarpon really start to get active. If you want to book a trip you can check out the link on here and do it directly on Fishing Booker or call the marina office at 305-664-2461 and ask for Capt. Trent!

We were after tarpon today on our half day trip. Tarpon are one of those fish you may only get a shot or two a day at and you must make the most of it. Today we hooked a couple nice tarpon however the fish threw the hooks unfortunately. We refer to this usually as ‘jumping’ the fish off, usually because when they go airborne and shake there head that is when the hooks gets dislodged. Sometimes it helps to point the rod at the fish when they jump to take pressure off the hook, but sometimes it happens regardless. We use specific rods that are more forgiving with softer tips for this reason. We did catch a huge nurse shark though as a consolation prize. Tarpon are here in full force April through June so get a trip booked today and let’s go fishing!