By: Capt. Greg Poland
Hope everybody has been having a great month of fishing, I know we have been dealing with some cold fronts and the wind that comes in along with it but the fishing out on the edge of the reef and around the local bridges and channels has been great! We have been catching everything from bluefish to kingfish on the oceanside and every jack cravelle passing through the Florida Keys must have made a stop in Islamorada over the last few weeks.
I got a call from Capt. Alex Adler on the KALEX a few weeks ago that I needed to run out to 20ft and see a football field size school of bluefish that was devouring everything in its way. We were in the backcountry casting at a few rolling tarpon that were brushing us off so the idea of a school of hungry fish was a breath of fresh air, so we quickly tied a wire leader on a spin rod and a trace of wire on the fly rod and left for the best morning of fishing I can ever remember. When we found the school of bluefish, they were in 25ft of water just south of the lighthouse and we followed them all the way to the Long Key bridge.
We caught them on every type of tackle we had on the boat and had multiple triple headers on but the best part was watching Kyle toss a fly into a school of hungry fish. These are photos from that day of a tackle busting adventure.
My good friend Capt. Randy Towe has opened a new shop called Islamorada Fishing Outfitters that has everything from rod and reel repair to custom built fishing rods that he makes on site, so if you find yourself in the Tavernier area check him out between the 7-11 and the traffic light on the bayside in the strip mall. He has a lot of good advice and some cool fishing memorabilia in the shop from all his years of guiding and tournament fishing in South Florida. In the backcountry and Everglades, the snook fishing has been slow for me and most of the guys I have been getting reports from and I feel this is mostly because of all those cold fronts but by the time you are reading this they should be in our rear-view mirror.
I have some prime dates open this spring so if you want to get out and do a little tarpon fishing give me a call or email all my info is below and we can take your boat or my new Contender 25 Bay Boat.
— Contact Capt. Greg at 305.393.3327 or email gregpoland@icloud.com
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