Well today we had a cold front, didn’t get super cold but temperature is dropping more tonight. We got lucky and found some tarpon in some of the canals while we were fishing for snook, redfish, black drum, and the like. First fish of the day was a juvenile 10 lber on light tackle! Lots of fun and managed to get him to the boat. Keeping the little guys on there is always much harder than the big boys. They just have less real estate in the mouth to hook ’em, and are very acrobatic and usually on our spinning rods we have a much tighter drag and such as we are fishing for other species sometimes like today. But my dad was on the rod and knew right what to do, loosen the drag and go very easy on him and of course bow when he jumped! Anyways first official caught tarpon of the season. January is usually not very good fishing for them in our areas. But usually by February sometime I do start catching them regularly and often some big fish too that are early arrivals. It’s all condition related – if it’s calm and warm it can get good quick, but if its cold then I wouldn’t plan on it. We have more cold weather coming this weekend, so if they are caught it’s going to be more of a lucky thing like today. 1 for 1
On a side note we did catch the largest snook I’ve ever had landed on my boat today, and quite possibly the largest for my dad ever too! Read more about it on my fishing islamorada blog.
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
