Got out with Lona and Bob today visiting from Sebastian, FL. We were suppose to fish a couple weeks ago, but had a scheduling issue but luckily were able to move to today. Still had a bit of southwest wind early but it laid out flat by 9:30 or so, and get very hot by mid day when the sun came out. We caught bait early which was easy again. We hit the redfish good to start, catching a couple dozen or so. Then ran to try the tarpon with the little bit of tide we had left. Didn’t see much, was hoping the same group would pop up we found yesterday morning, but they never did. We did have a couple roll nearby but just a few sharks were had. We moved and then found some more fish in another area as the wind laid out. But they didn’t see in a great mood, hard to line up on and just moving around. More sharks and catfish, and we did catch a tripletail that floated by. My buddy called and said he saw a good group of tarpon further out and had jumped one off but sharks were getting him. We made our way out there and sure enough there were quite a few tarpon more than I’ve seen in a while! It looked really good and we didn’t have too many shark problems though we did catch some. But the tarpon just didn’t want to play, every time I’d think about moving one would roll right on top of our baits. Just figured it’d happen any second! After about an hour though, we gave up. We had a few shrimp left and went and caught a good handful of snook, a few trout and a sheepshead just to mix things up a bit. We gave the tarpon a try again on the way home, they were still rolling around pretty good there. We did jump one right away, but just one of those bites where they seem to spit it before they even pull the rod over. After that it got very steamy and nothing at all seemed to bite, not even the sharks or catfish. We gave it another 20 minutes and called it a day. Funny yesterday we didn’t see a ton of fish, but had good rallies with the ones we found, and today we had better conditions and more fish but they just didn’t bite. Oh well you never know, but at least we had good action with Plan B and C. If it stays calm and light winds, hopefully these fish will turn on a bit. According to the forecast that’s what should happen near the end of the week for a while. 0 for 1
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
