Incredible day with Andy Thompson and his sons Conrad and Derek! Just when you didn’t think it could get any better after yesterday it did! We headed out early and spent some time catching our bait. Nice and easy after a few tosses of the cast net we had the well full of fresh live bait. I told the boys fishing was pretty good yesterday and we had ideal conditions today (calm, warm) so it likely would be again. We joked about possibly setting the season record again as I told them I broke it yesterday. Low and behold we went and did that and didn’t jinx ourselves! We caught the start of the falling tide and found a huge school of tarpon that had moved in from the Gulf. Pretty green water and I just knew they would be happy. Our first two baits that hit the water yielded a double header within a few minutes! A big 100 lb fish and a smaller 40 lber. We had to chase the 100 lber down and that was the biggest fish I’ve had landed in over a month or so. We ended up catching two more double headers after that – just ridiculous! After that we had a few singles, missed a few fish including two more double headers, and Derek got a nice cobia that swam up by the boat. After that the tarpon seemed like they slowed down a hair, but we continued picking away at them, fish of all sizes from 30 lbs to 80 lbs or so. We got a big lemon shark too. Conrad had a big tarpon that we thought was a lemon and we cranked the drag down hard on him almost to try and break him off but decided better of it. Turns out it was a nice 90 lb tarpon that just didn’t want to jump and was doing erratic, head shaking runs like a shark! The tide eventually quit on us and we were about to call it quits, having beaten my record handily already. Then we ended up hooking another double header! Unfortunately one of those fish came unbuttoned, but Andy got his for the final fish. The boys went 16 for 20 for just a magical day here in Islamorada, Florida fishing for tarpon. July has been nothing short of epic… it’s not even half way over and I’m already closing in on my best monthly total ever after two huge days yesterday and today. For those that don’t know the summer time is hands down my favorite time of year for fishing down here. Yes it’s hot but it’s worth a little sweat to get conditions like these on the regular. No big crowds, tons of fish, good conditions – you really couldn’t ask for anything else if you are a fishermen. I’m scheduled to be off tomorrow but just may have to get out there for fun or move some of my clients around later in the week because it looks like it’ll be flat calm again and you can bet fishing will be good. 16 for 20
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
