Got out with Tony and his son Zack and friend Andre for a day of tarpon fishing. The boys were down from NJ and Andre had never caught a tarpon so they were hoping for him to get one. We had a bit of weather out in the bay early so we ran a different route getting out. Not much for bait around luckily I had some stashed away from a few days ago that was still in good shape. We looked around several areas I hadn’t fished much lately and didn’t see a whole lot for tarpon activity to start. Though after a few looks we came across one area with a good slug of fish! We set up and got Andre hooked up pretty quickly with a nice 50 lb tarpon! The winds kicked up after that and it howled out of the northwest. The tarpon seemed to scatter as we didn’t get another bite there. We moved around a tried another area nearby, saw a couple fish but no bite though Zack got a blacktip shark. We looked in a few other areas and didn’t see much, and then we waited for the tide to start in as we looked more. Eventually came across another school of good fish, as soon as we got lined up again we got bit straight away and Tony got a nice 80 lb tarpon! These fish stuck around and we then got Zack a smaller guy about a 35 lb tarpon. A few more sharks and then we were out of bait! We looked around on the way home for bait since the guys have me again tomorrow, caught a little bit in some shallow muds but they weren’t really easy. Looked around several bridges and channels near home but not much at all there plus busy weekend on a saturday. Anyways I’ll be looking for some bait in the AM, but since these guys all caught tarpon today the pressure is off so we may mix it up with some other stuff tomorrow too! 3 for 3
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
