Got out with Jason and Clay today for a full day in the backcountry. We mixed it up a but but tarpon was on their list. Fished a little different area than the previous days, as the winds were howling a bit from the get go. Lots of tarpon around here too, they seem to be everywhere blowing up the mullets and such. We set up and put out some baits, anchored and then tried drifting as the current was absolutely ripping. Jason got one nice 20 lb tarpon on the jig which was cool, unfortunately he came off at the boat before we could get him in for pictures, but a good catch none the less. After that we didn’t get much more activity out of them and they seemed to quiet down. So we switched gears to fish for other things. Not much happening anywhere there with the falling tide, we jumped between 2 or 3 spots and then decided to make a bigger move. Boy there were boats everywhere as I found out later there was a couple tournaments going on. Running 50 miles from home you expect to be able to fish wherever you want, but not today several spots I wanted to go were taken! Anyways we were still able to put together a good catch, had to dig in and grind hard, but we managed a good 15 or so snook, a half dozen redfish, a nice tripletail, and plenty of ladyfish, jacks, and snappers that kept us busy. Had to pick a few fish in several spots and then finally the last stop of the day we got into a steady bite for about 30 minutes anyways. Backcountry SLAM for Jason too! 1 for 1
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
