Got out with Dave and Nick down from Maine for a half day trip. We had another cold front come in the night before and dropped the temperatures down into the 60s, with the water temps getting to 69 locally. The boys wanted some action so I didn’t recommend dedicating our trip to tarpon as that big temperature swing can definitely give them lockjaw. We fished the patch reefs and it wasn’t easy out there but we caught a variety of things including hogfish, grouper, and snapper. We did try for the last hour for a tarpon in some of the local channels as I had some bait saved from a couple days before. We did see plenty of fish rolling when we arrived. We caught the tide change and I thought maybe with the tide coming in and slightly warming up with the warmer atlantic water coming into the channel we might have a shot. But unfortunately it didn’t happen. After 40 minutes or so we didn’t see many of the fish any longer, I gave it some extra time for the guys since it was just a half day. We did get a big jack crevelle and an atlantic sharpnose shark. But that was it. I talked to a buddy of mine who was fishing the other end of the channel on the bayside, he said the same thing he saw plenty of tarpon for a while but no love out of them. Anyways another front came in and now temperatures dropped to 55 overnight… real winter weather again brrr! It will slightly warm up but then another front on Tuesday, so I wouldn’t expect good tarpon fishing again until maybe at the end of the week or next weekend – IF we don’t have any more cold fronts come in! Lots of winter weather the last week with 3 fronts in a row… where was all this weather in February! 0 for 0
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
