7/27/14 + 7/28/14 Late July Tarpon Fishing in the Florida Keys

Well yesterday afternoon I fished my soon to be mother in law, Ginger Baxter.  We just went out for a couple hours in the afternoon to try to catch a tarpon.  Tough conditions very calm, hot, and lots of jetskis zipping about as it is the weekend before mini lobster season.  But we managed to get a nice 80 lb fish!  A few good jumps and we got him boatside, though he cut us off around a bridge before we could really get him up for a good picture.  We only fished those couple hours with the baits we had from a few days before then went in to get dinner and enjoy sunset!  Today we fished all day back in the everglades.  Tough fishing we saw a lot of tarpon this morning in a couple spots.  But the suckers wouldn’t bite this morning.  I had plenty of fresh mullet too.  We caught a big bull shark and then ran further off the mainland to catch the start of the incoming tide.  We got lucky and caught a tarpon right on the tide change about a 30 lber.  Then a few more sharks, had to shuffle around with the big giant patches of weeds, and finally got set back up and some more shark activity and then finally another nice tarpon of 60 lbs or so to finish the day.  I talked to another friend of mine fishing and he said fishing was very tough as well they had two tarpon bites all day and caught them both as well.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk