Got out with Stepan Polymers group again today. We made the trek out back to see if the big school of tarpon we found yesterday was still around. Conditions were relatively the same… howling east wind. We caught enough bait early on and then made the run. We got there and at first it looked good. We saw a fish bust, and a couple roll and one free jump. Felt like we were in them and we set up, but no bites there. Eventually a big shark found us and we pulled on him a while. Jumped around a bit, and just didn’t see the numbers like we did yesterday. Eventually we gave up as we quit seeing anything. Looked in a few creeks and not much going on in there. We ran even further to check another area but that didn’t work out either. Another captain I fish with some was back there too and they had no luck at all either. We stopped back where we started to look one more time and then got lucky and found a small pack of tarpon. We set back up in them and had what I believe was a couple grab the baits and blow them out. Pulled drag for a second and then got the baits back unscathed. Then finally we hooked a 45 lber! We landed him but unfortunately he didn’t cooperate for boatside pictures. After that we were still in some fish but no more bites. We did get some more blacktips sharks including a very big one. After that things dried up again and we checked a couple spots on the way home for tarpon. Did see a few in each of those spots but smaller fish and they didn’t really respond to us at all. Anyways it was a case of there today, gone tomorrow, but at least we got one. I know fishing wasn’t easy around town with the 25-30 mph winds, and at least it was nice once we got back in this area. Ride home was a little bumpy but not too bad. 1 for 1
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
