5/15/17 May Tarpon Fishing Islamorada in the Backcountry

Back in town after a quick trip this weekend to watch my sister in law get married.  Had Pete Davidson and crew out today and they are fishing with me the next four days as well.  We headed out early into the backcountry, fairly slick calm conditions with falling tide mostly all day.  We found some mullet in one of the summer time spots back there which was nice, hopefully they’ll be sticking around from now on!  We caught them then hit the channels.  Nothing in the first stop though the tide was just quitting there.  The next channel further out the tide was falling and we saw some fish.  Set up and gave it a little while, catching a few sharks, then finally got a nice 50 lb tarpon.  After that we didn’t have any more tarpon action as the fish seemed to settle down.  We ran out off the mainland to take a peek, didn’t see much and looked all over, finally the last stop we saw some rolling.  We set up and tried, just more sharks, made 3 moves but never had a tarpon bite… Tough it looked like it was going to be real good but not to be.  On the way home we hit another channel, the wind was blowing slightly out of the west now.  Tide was getting near the end, we gave it an hour because I had seen fish on bottom machine though we saw none roll.  Finally in the last 20 minutes, we hooked another tarpon about 35 lbs or so.  Great way to finish the day, always a great to catch a couple tarpon even though the bite was a little slow.  Hopefully it’ll get better but the winds are suppose to kick up tomorrow then by Wednesday it says it’ll be 15-20…  Tired of the wind but at least it’s out of the east.  2 for 2

Capt. Rick Stanczyk