Got out with Rich today who had emailed me a couple weeks ago about fishing. It was his 50th and he really wanted to get a tarpon not only caught but up for a good picture as well! Sometimes as a guide you hate hearing that because its like a curse that you’ll catch one and you just know it won’t cooperate for the picture. It kinda looked like it was going to be one of those days too we ended up seeing a few fish early on and where we first set up we ended up hooking a nice 90 lb fish right off the bat. That is a large summer time fish and on our lighter summer gear it sure put up a fight. We chased it around on the flats in shallow water for near an hour, and it just kept going and going. There was some weather around and we eventually got near rolling the fish over on the leader, and she made a run and the braid popped as the leader went out the rod tip. But the one good thing it was about 2 minutes from pouring down rain so we high tailed it out of there and avoided getting soaked, but still a bit of a heart breaker a technical catch but no picture! We tried another channel where we ran to avoid the rain but no dice. Then we made our way back to where we started, the winds were rocking a good 20-25 mph now and I just hoped we’d find some more fish. We worked the area hard and didn’t see a whole lot, set up a few times but no more bites. We finally had about 30 minutes left and we came across a small pack of fish and sure enough we set up and hooked a nice 50 lber in a few minutes – this time the fish cooperated nicely and it was one we were able to fight from a dead boat and land for nice pics. We had a few minutes left and put them back out and sure enough we hooked another one right away and got that one too! So all in all a great morning for Rich landing 3 tarpon and getting 2 up for the picture. He was so excited we even got one mounted through Gray’s Taxidermy so that he can remember that for a long time!
Tarpon fishing has been up & down this off season but it’s definitely possible to catch them still. Some times you just have to be OK with striking out though for that possibility at a home run. Luckily today though it was closer to a grand slam!
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina
