Had Michael, Preston, and Rebecca out for a 3/4 day. Rebecca or Preston had never caught a tarpon. I told the crew it’s been a little hit and miss lately for the poons, unfortunately no honey holes i had extreme confidence in but I was game to give it a good effort. We left early and caught bait. Checked 2 or 3 areas for fish, as it was fairly calm. Didn’t see many signs of them and just kept pushing. Finally got into one area and saw one or two. We kept looking and finally got into a lively area where a good handful were rolling. We set up and sharks got us a a little bit but then Rebecca hooked a big 90 lb tarpon! She fought it well and we landed it in about 40 minutes. Unfortunately by the time we were done the tarpon seemed to have dispersed. We saw a handful more and moved around, did have a few go by our baits but no more bites. We decided to move on after that. Checked an area where we saw them good a few days ago but didn’t see much surface activity today out there. We did see a few on the electronics, but no more bites though a few more sharks. We did have a few tripletails float by we casted too, but they didn’t seem happy and the baits floated right off there noses. We had a bit more time and I gave it a few extra minutes too just looking in one more area, then fished some numbers in another area for a last ditch effort. But didn’t see much else except for a few more sharks. Anyways we gave it a hard effort and covered some ground, and always happy to catch one plus it was a big one. The crew decided to rebook me for Saturday so hopefully we can get Preston his tarpon then! 1 for 1
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
