Tarpon fishing has been good this past week despite the weather that we have been experiencing. The Florida Keys, primarily Key West, has been experiencing high winds and storm systems frequently in the past week. This has made it hard to get to some of the tarpon spots, but once we get there we are hooking fish. The tarpon don’t seem to mind the rain or the wind.
The weather patterns can make it hard to set up on fish. This is because the locations we are fishing for tarpon are primarily edges of the flats, channel edges, or deeper channels. The tide and the wind in these spots may not match up, creating a washing machine effect. The weather has been making all of the fishing guides work a little harder to say the least!
Setting up on the fish is the tricky part, but the tarpon have been crushing our baits with proper placement. The main tarpon baits we are currently using are smaller to medium sized pin fish. In the deeper channels we have been free drifting them with the current. The more shallow areas we are using bobbers or corks to keep our baits suspended mid level, so they don’t swim into the grass and hide. Both techniques have been working. The tarpon have been showing up in bigger numbers every day, and we should see the fishing for tarpon get better and better.