How's the Fishing? Well..let me tell you.....The fishing is great! Islamorada is known as "The Fishing Capital of the World". That's a pretty big reputation to maintain. The reason it is called "The Fishing Capital of the World" is because we have such a diverse fishery here...there is always something biting and there are sooo many different species you can "target". In the backcountry you have tarpon, redfish, snook, trout, snapper, shark...etc etc...and on the offshore side you have sailfish, king mackerel, amberjack, dolphin (mahi-mahi), snapper..etc etc... That is just to list a few! How many other places in the world can you find this diversity????
I still get asked "How's the weather gonna be?" or "I heard the weather is going to be bad - what do you think?" The best answer I have to this question is "There are only 2 types of weather...whether you are going fishing or whether you are not. I have been out on the windiest, coldest, nastiest weather days and had some of the best fishing and I have been out on some of the nicest, calmest, sunniest beautiful weather days and had tough fishing...and visa versa.
Not knowing what's going to happen is one of the reasons fishing is so much fun...you never know exactly what it's going to be...any day could be that banner day...where you catch that trophy or get into a school of big bruisers...crankin em in one after the other. You could be fishing for trout and have a monster tarpon eat your lure...WOW!! That just happened to us last week. We hooked up with a 100 pound plus tarpon while fishing for trout on a medium action spinning rod!!! Very exciting...chasing around a monster tarpon that is flying out of the water and screaming line off the reel. Fun fun fun....and you never know what you will hook into next. Tarpon in a trout hole, redfish in a snook spot, snook in a snapper hole or maybe even a 21 pound permit in a snapper hole!!! What?? - you say that could never happen. Well, that is exactly what happened. About a month ago a group from Michigan was down and we were catching snapper for their dinner and WHAM a 21 pound permit took the bait and we were off to the races ..chasing him for a good 20 minutes. Got him in the boat for pictures, weight and released him to fight again.
The trout, snapper, redfish and black drum are biting well right now. We are in the very beginning of our tarpon season. They should be showing up in big numbers over the next few weeks as our temperatures increase. We are getting a few nice snook, some triple tail, pompano, mackerel and sharks too. The tarpon season is just about here and I expect it to be another great one!!
The fishing is always good here and even on a slow day...you will still catch more fish then almost anywhere else in the world. When the fishing is great..it is unmatched anywhere!!! Come on down and experience the fabulous fishing and beauty of our area.
Thanks for reading,
Captain Steve Murray
Phone: (305) 393-1641
Email: stevemurray126@att.net
Web Page: www.tarponheadquarters.com
