Got out yesterday for my first paid charter since IRMA and was thankful to have it. Steve really wanted to catch a tarpon and we gave it a go! Bait was fairly easy and we got enough right out of the marina basin. We headed to the backcountry and tried some channels. Found some tarpon in the first area busting bait pretty good, but they were acting a little funny. The tide was absolutely ripping due to the near full moon and king tides we are having now. It was fishable though but the fish definitely didn’t seem happy. We fished hard and moved a few times, had a few sharks and a big ray but that was it. The tarpon were busting every so often, not rolling too much. Anyways after an hour or so we moved spots. Tried off the mainland and the water was super muddy and weedy out there. With the ripping current it was difficult keeping baits out there. We did see some tarpon free jump so there were a few around, but never had a bite of anything. We ran through the canal to check some areas in there, found some little tarpon but no luck with them. We tried some live baits in case some snook were there too, but no love at all. After that we tried flamingo and didn’t see a whole lot of activity but we did see a busy near a channel marker. We set up and soon after we did get a tarpon bite, but one of those funny bites where they grabbed the bait, jumped and spit it before even coming tight on the line. I saw another bust and thought we may get another shot, but no such luck. We then ran back towards Islamorada to try some local channels. I gave it some extra time since I was able to work that out and it was nice to be on the water again. But the tarpon just didn’t want to happen. We tried 3 more channels, think I had seen a couple fish roll in one spot but no more bites. We had another shark bite us off and that was it. I had talked to a friend who tarpon fished around the bridges most of the day, and they hadn’t had any luck either and never saw a tarpon so I feel we made the right more going where we did there were definitely some fish around back there. Anyways a tough day but it was nice to be on the water and we definitely gave it a good hard effort. I think fishing will get better once we move away from this full moon hopefully in a few more days. The winds are going to be more northeasterly through the end of the week (hopefully) and that will be great too. We had a lot of hard south wind the last week which just doesn’t help our backcountry fishing at all, northeast things will cool down, clean up, and should help push more bait down the coast which means fall mullet run tarpon fishing usually. We are 100% back in business so give me a call if you are looking to get out there! 0 for 1
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
