Got out with Bill and Alicia today, return customers of mine down from Pennsylvania who also have a place here. Bill wanted a tarpon and Alicia wanted to catch some fish to eat. I told them the fishing had been a little tough overall lately but we could give both a shot hopefully. We left a little early and fished some local spots as I had a tough day yesterday in the backcountry finding any numbers of tarpon and I knew a few were caught around town yesterday. We found a few early on in the first stop and had a couple blow ups on our live baits! No bites there but we did finally hook a fish on another rod that Bill got to catch! A nice 90 lb tarpon, his first and he was thrilled! We got him on the leader several times and some good video of him but unfortunately he broke off making a big run off the leader. After that we tried to hunt around and find some eating fish for Alicia but it was a little difficult. Couldn’t find any snappers but we did catch some mackerels and a few other species. We tried for tarpon again later in the day I checked a few of the bridges but did not see much in the way of signs of tarpon life. We found a few more in the area we fished in the morning, but did not get another bite though we caught a big jack crevelle. Anyways glad we got Bill his tarpon. Looks like the winds will subside even more tomorrow and we should have a very nice weak. Hopefully with the calming of the weather some fish will show back up in the backcountry! 1 for 1
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing