2/9/17 Islamorada Tarpon Fishing in February

Got after the tarpon again today.  We had a light southwesterly breeze that picked up a little in the afternoon but overall not too bad.  It is a prefrontal condition though and suppose to get down in the 60s tonight so may turn the tarpon off for a few days at least.  We caught plenty of mackerels early and then hit the tarpon areas.  Fish were where they had been, we caught sharks and some ‘mud marlin’ sawfish early on, and after a couple moves we hooked a big 150 lb tarpon!  He was jumping like crazy coming at us and every which direction, but he stayed on there.  We got him to the boat with leader in hand, but he didn’t want to pose for a boatside picture.  Luckily we caught another and this one wasn’t quite as big but still probably 120-130 or so.  He didn’t fight as hard but still ended up taking us a ways with the current and wind, but we got him next to the boat for some good photo ops.  After that we caught a few more sharks and tried for a few snook again to finish the day, but with the wind direction the shoreline area was fairly muddy and didn’t have much luck.  Though a great day with 2 big tarpon and some other critters too!  2 for 2

Capt. Rick Stanczyk