Got out with Nolan, Shane, and Olivia today for a full day trip. Nolan runs some charters up in the NC area and works as a sales rep for a rod company up there. He wanted to try one of his rods for tarpon. I told him tarpon fishing can be very hit and miss this time of year, but we had decent conditions to try it. I was able to sneak out yesterday morning for an hour to catch bait too, so I got us some mullet and pilchards. I definitely wanted to have some ammo and give it a 110% shot which we did! We left early and headed into the backcountry. We found a lot of tarpon busting off the shorelines, eating various glass minnows and finger mullets. We could not get them to hit our baits too. Not sure if it was the full moon last night, or cooler water temperatures. They were active, but just not for the hook baits. We fished the last hour of falling tide, and then tried again when it started in, but no love. We bailed on that and then had to spend a good bit of time getting on a bite of snook and redfish. But we did manage too and had very good fishing in one spot for reds and a good solid handful of snook. We gave it some extra time at the end of the day as it slicked out nice and checked a few other channels for tarpon. Didn’t see much but we did come across a few rolling in one channel at the very end. We gave it another 20 minutes, but did not get a response out of them either. Anyways there are still some around, but as stated it can be very hit and miss this time of year. The cooler water temperatures some times make them not feed as actively, and when you are in the thick of a bait run some times those fish just don’t want to hit a hook bait when there are so many other options. But thankfully right now the snooks and reds are thick and provide a good alternative. If anyone wants to get out fishing though let me know, plenty of open days in December and the other backcountry fishing should remain solid. 0 for 0
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
