Got out with Marty and his son Spencer for a 3/4 day today. We left out early and headed into the backcountry. Conditions weren’t great it was blowing 15-20 mph out of the southeast… very windy for this time of year. The hard winds make it tough to see tarpon and they also just don’t really like it blowing that much either. Also it can make the water very muddy and turbulent, tough for bait fish as well. We tried a few spots for bait early but did not see much. After the 3rd spot I was a little panic stricken, thinking we may have to do something else or even abandon our morning. I told the guys we’d check one more area and then make a decision. Luckily in this area the water was a little cleaner and we found some bait in the channel. We had to work for it but caught plenty for our trip. That whole process took nearly an hour and a half, but we were lucky and then found some tarpon in the channel mouth where we were. We set up and had a few shark bites. We moved around and then saw some tarpon jumping and tried to get lined up. More sharks. Then one more move and we had one roll behind us. Soon Spencer was hooked up to his first tarpon! We fought him for 15 minutes and he dragged us around, and got him to the boat for some good pictures. Thankfully he did not come off, sometimes the rougher days its harder to keep the tarpon on too as the boat is bouncing all over the place and adds more pressure to the line then I like. But we got the fish and we were happy. We kept at it and moved a couple more times, dad eventually got a bite too but we missed the tarpon. A few more sharks and it was almost time to go but I told the boys we’d give it an extra 30 minutes since we took so long catching bait. We tried one other channel and did see a tarpon roll here, we got lined up and gave it a good effort but no bite just a few more sharks and catfish. Anyways tough fishing but we made it happen, those are the days that make you appreciate tarpon. When conditions are good it can look easy some times but to go out and get them when it’s not ideal conditions that can be tough. Anyways I have a few days off and am actually open all through the weekend. If anybody wants to go give me a shout. Unfortunately we still are going to have a good bit of wind it looks like but saturday afternoon and sunday afternoon it is suppose to lay down some and then blow again in the morning. But maybe they’ll be wrong and it could be nice in the morning. 1 for 2
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
