Got out with Cody today visiting from Texas for a full day. We spent the day after tarpon. Bait was plentiful and easy to catch, a couple throws of the net and we were loaded. Saw lots of bait too while running to the first tarpon area, its amazing how many mullet are still around this late in the summer. Unfortunately the tarpon weren’t as plentiful as yesterday, we saw a couple rollers but couldn’t really get through the sharks to get a bite out of them. Yesterday there were so many that you knew after some point a tarpon would get it, but today as I said we only saw a couple roll. We tried another channel after that, caught the start of the falling tide, but didn’t see much though got some big spinner sharks. We then ran out towards the mainland to give it a shot out there. I hadn’t really been out there as we’ve had southwesterly wind which generally isn’t great for that area, but being that I’ve been just about every where else the last few days I had to try something new. Didn’t see any tarpon unfortunately, though we got into some more sharks. We tried up inside the canals to just try something different, and actually did end up hooking a nice 100 lb tarpon in there! Unfortunately he got around a tree limb right away and broke us off. We tried another area in there and caught a big lemon shark and hooked a few others that cut us off. After that I tried another are offshore where the tarpon can stack up in the summer sometimes, though nothing there either. We then ran back towards flamingo to finish the day. Saw a few triple tail there which was cool, had one good shot but didn’t get him to eat. We fished one area without much luck, then tried one last channel where I had seen a couple fish caught a few days ago. We did see a handful of tarpon roll so I got excited. We got lined up perfectly on them, had a few roll right behind us, but luck just wasn’t with us. We gave it some extra time but just couldn’t get a bite. A few more sharks including another big lemon and that about wrapped things up. Cody had a good time though and we worked very hard trying to make it happen but things have just gotten tough. Really the water and everything just looks so pretty, and plenty of bait around, you think there would be some more fish around and happy but just not the case right now. Looks like Wednesday winds may swing back to the east for a while and pick up just a tad, maybe that will help things out again. Don’t think it can get much tougher! Back at it tomorrow and then probably taking Wednesday off, but have thursday, friday, or next tuesday open, then going out of town for a week or so. If anybody wants to give it a shot, let me know! 0 for 1
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
@richardstanczyk
