Got out with Tony and Ron down from New York today for some tarpon fishing. They’ve been coming down here for a long time and really enjoy the fishing the Keys has to offer. We planned for a 3/4 day and headed out into the backcountry. We stopped and caught a little bait on the way, and I had plenty of leftovers from yesterday. Winds were blowing a little out of the south, once we got back around the mainland it was a little choppy but not too bad. We ran right where we had found a bunch of tarpon yesterday. I saw a bust as soon as we pulled up, and we set up and soon saw a fish roll. After a couple sharks, Tony had a tarpon bite but unfortunately we missed him. One of those smaller fish that were beating us up yesterday, they can be very hard to stick sometimes! Ron did get a nice size black tip though that gave a good fight. After that the winds laid out and I was hoping we’d see some fish rolling or making some kind of signs, though we really didn’t see much of anything. Not sure if they moved out with the southerly wind we had overnight, but it didn’t blow very hard so I wouldn’t of thought so. I made a move and just anchored randomly out further near where I had been yesterday, and we had a couple more shark bites and that was it. I figured we’d of seen the fish if they were there with as calm as it was, so we ran and hit one of the channels. Some tarpon were there, and we made 3 moves trying to get in front of them, but they just didn’t seem very happy and eventually didn’t see much any more. We caught a couple more bonnet head sharks, and that was it. Tried another channel where I hadn’t been in a while to give it a look since it was on the way home and we didn’t have a whole lot of time left on our 3/4 day. We caught a couple more little sharks, and didn’t see much for tarpon. The winds kind of kicked up a bit again, and Tony decided he’d like to stay out a little longer. I said no problem and we tried another channel over near flamingo. We saw a fish roll and got set up in the area, but unfortunately the little blacktips started to eat us up and we went through the rest of our bait rather quick. We gave it a good 30 minutes though and I was hoping we’d of gotten another bite but it just wasn’t our day. We gave it a good hard effort though things just got a little tough. Anyways the guys had a good time and it was a beautiful day out there, stayed nice and overcast so it wasn’t too hot. Hopefully things get a little better tomorrow, looks like we’ll have nice calm conditions the next several days. After that I don’t have anything on the books for a while so if you are looking to go fishing, it can still be a good time to go after some tarpon. 0 for 1
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
@richardstanczyk
