Another banner day today with Ralph and Greg down from NJ! I got in touch with the boys last night and they were on vacation visiting the Keys. Tarpon was a request so I told them we have had good fishing as of late, but the bait catching has been a little bit of a struggle. Though if they were willing to go early and put the time and effort into the bait it could pay off handsomely! We opted for that and headed out. Bait was tough of course but it was better than yesterday. We had to work very hard at it, making lots of mess and getting mud and weed all over the boat trying to net the bait. But after a few throws it started to get a little easier and we got a couple good tosses with some good numbers of bait fish. We headed out to the areas where we found tarpon yesterday and they were right where we left them! First two baits out we missed a double header, then the next two baits out we hooked a double header and landed both fish! Nice start the boys each landed a tarpon within the first 20 minutes or the trip! After that we jumped off several more tarpon, got a big blacktip shark, then Ralph landed another tarpon. We moved around a bit and jumped off a few more tarpon. They just aren’t staying on the hook very well right now and not super aggressive bites, rather ones where they jump and spit it as soon as they feel anything so you have to hope to get lucky that the hook sticks them before they do that. Anyways after a move Greg hooked into a nicer size fish and landed a good 60 lb tarpon! After that the tide stared to slow down and I knew the boys had requested to try and catch some dinner. So we left the tarpon alone and caught a bunch of trout though most were fairly small. We did make one more stop and got a nice mangrove snapper on our artificials for a little appetizer for the guys at least, then it was time to head on home. Tarpon fishing is still very good and the winds are suppose to slick off tomorrow for the foreseeable future. The fall condition feels like it’s here and lots of tarpon are around. I had a cancellation Thursday due to the hurricane hitting the Carolinas, so I’m available. Right now I even have a load of bait fish ready to go and as I said the baits not easy right now – so you couldn’t ask for a better opportunity than that for a tarpon fishing trip. Give me a ring let’s go fishing! 4 for 14
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
