Got out with Mike today for a full day of tarpon fishing. I had plenty of leftover bait from yesterday and am going out of town tomorrow for a few days, so didn’t have to bother with catching them. We headed out to some channels I hadn’t fished in a while but heard some fish showed up there… we had a little time to wait for the tide change where I had been fishing anyways. We pulled in and tarpon were rolling around. The tide was just starting in here. We sat for a bit waiting for the current to move. The tarpon were a little finicky, had them roll right over our baits a few times but nothing. After about 45 minutes and where I was almost ready to move around a bit, we hooked one and caught a nice 45 lb fish. After that we got another about 55 lbs. Mike had a blast fighting both of them. Things quieted down after that, we had a few bonnet head sharks, and moved once where I had seen some tarpon rolling. No more tarpon bites but we did get a couple big jack crevelles. After that we headed inland and tried the other area where I’d been having good fishing. Not much going on there today though didn’t see any tarpon rolling or splashing. My buddy said he had jumped two nearby right when he pulled in but that was it. We each made a couple moves without much but a few sharks. We got a nice big triple tail though, and had some shots at some others but couldn’t connect but got a nice fish for dinner. After that my buddy called me he had found some tarpon and caught a double header! We headed over as he left, saw a couple fish roll after a bit. But no bites there we moved a few times and fished hard, but sometimes you gotta be in the right place at the right time. Anyways we hooked a big shark that cut us off and a sting ray, and ended up calling it a day. 2 for 2
I’m out of town like I said but later in August I still have some availability. Tarpon fishing is possible all the way through October, and as I’ve said we had the best fishing we had all year last year in September and October.
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
@richardstanczyk
