Well got out for my first official tarpon trip of the year today with Garrett, Kim, and Finley. Garrett was wanting to fish with me last year but I was already booked, so this time he booked well in advance. We were planning on mixing it up a little with the fishing, but tarpon was definitely on his list. The day was nice with a little northeasterly wind, not too bad. We ran out and caught some spanish mackerel to start the day. That kept us busy for an hour, and then we decided to look for some tarpon. I checked some of the usual early season haunts, and the first place we stopped we saw a good slug of tarpon which was nice to see! Within about 10 minutes, we were hooked up and Garrett had a nice 70 lber on that we landed! A few good jumps and a show, and got some good boatside pictures. After that we moved around a little, and the tarpon thinned out somewhat. We caught a few sharks including a monster blacktip then the tide quit. We decided to try to catch a few redfish while waiting for the tide to come in, which we caught one. Then a buddy of mine phoned me and said the tarpon were starting to get active again. We ran back to another area nearby, and again within 10 minutes, Kim had a nice tarpon on of roughly the same size 70 lbs or so. We fought him and got the fish boatside as well, though unfortunately he came unbuttoned while we were trying to get pictures but a good catch none the less. After that a few more sharks including a big lemon shark and it was time to go home. Well a successful start to tarpon season, looks like thing will stay warm so the fish should stick around unless we have a hard cold front. If the wind cranks it may slow it down a little depending where you are trying to fish, but I’d say it looks like a solid start to the season. I’m not focused on tarpon for my charter tomorrow, we may give it a whirl for a short amount of time, but we’ll see. Then I’m off Friday and Saturday. Full week next week, but I have openings the 17th and 20th of this month, and some days still open in March. Give me a shout if you want to get out after the silver king! 2 for 2
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
