Thomas got to pull on some big tarpon today! The winds laid down nicely and it was a 180 from yesterday. We headed out early and found a big group of happy tarpon to start. First bait out we hooked a nice 150 lber within 5 minutes! We battled the fish for an hour and got her boatside several times. Thomas wanted to jump in and get a good shot with one, but I told him you really have to get lucky and get the right cooperative fish. This one eventually made one last hard run snapping the line. These big fish around the bridges are hard on our gear, so often it’s tough to get them to roll over as all you can do is pull hard. After that we left and tried another bridge. Again we hooked up pretty quick, and chased this fish down fast but he got us in the bridge and broke off after a few minutes. We set back up and them caught a big nurse shark. Things seemed to quiet down, so we moved around and then got on another pack of happy tarpon. We hooked one more that we chased into the bay, and had up to the boat again several times. Looked like we would roll this one over, pulled hard on the leader trying to stop her. But again one hard kick and she broke free! We set back up and then hooked another one about 20 minutes later. Again we got the fish chased down, in and out of the bridge. But eventually she swam in and we couldn’t stop her. After that we ran back towards home to try. Found a bunch more tarpon. No response so we moved around again, and had two more good zips on our baits. Not 💯 sure that they were tarpon, but definitely seemed like it with the pickup and run. Anyways we called it a day after that. 3 tarpon to the boat and a 4th we chased down before breaking us off, plus a couple more possible bites. Pretty good fishing, may tarpon fishing stays pretty hot! I’m off the next couple days hopefully getting my new boat soon. Looks like we have a nice stretch of weather, should keep the fish happy! 3 for 4
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
