Well we tried to get out tarpon fishing yesterday but the weather gods had other plans. We left the dock early and the bay was clear though there were good chances of rain. Normally we can dodge around it pretty good and much of the stuff we see offshore breaks up by the time it reaches us. Today though that was not the case. We looked around for bait for a bit which was a little tougher as it had disappeared from the area I found it the day before. So we had to zoom back to another area where we did catch it pretty good but had to work at it. By the time that was done we were two hours into our day with the hour ride into the backcountry. We did see a couple tarpon in a channel nearby but as soon as we got our baits out we had to reel them up because storms were moving in. I thought we might get lucky and the heavy rain would miss us but I was wrong. We got swallowed up in it and had to bolt to Flamingo to hide out for 45 minutes or so with heavy rain and lightning cracking around us. The heavy weather passed but the wind never laid down and it was blowing a solid 25mph after that. My crew was a little scared of the lightning we saw and didn’t want to stick around for what could be more, and I told them it would likely be tough fishing with the wind cranking like crazy now and the storms having just blown through that often spook the fish for a while. So we just decided to head back. It did get nicer of course a far as the rain/lighting went, though it was blowing 30 by the time we hit the dock and there were still some showers passing around in the bay and nearby. But that really rarely happens and I don’t know that I’ve ever really had to totally bolt on a trip out into the backcountry like that, but to be honest I was over it as I was totally soaked with my boots filled with water too. Have a few days off with some family in town now, but looks like we are suppose to have questionable weather through the weekend anyways. But I’ll be back at it Sunday and then have some days open during the week if anyone wants to go.
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
