Got out again yesterday with one of my regulars. We focused strictly on tarpon. We had enough bait leftover from the previous day but did spend a little time looking for bait early on which proved difficult but luckily we had what we needed. We ran far in the backcountry where we had found the tarpon the previous day but alas didn’t see too much there. We spent some time looking and scanning around with sonar but to no avail. I was sure they had to be somewhere in the area so we started backtracking a bit. After about 4 or 5 miles we notice a few splashes on the surface and I pull the boat out of gear. “Keep your eyes peeled, watch for any signs of activity” I say to my customers. Sure enough we see a few tarpon tails slapping the surface and another one breach the surface. I watch the sonar and sure enough it lights up like a christmas tree soon – we’re in ’em! A massive school with thousands of fish and we’re seeing them from where we are to nearly a mile away. We set up and sure enough they’re happy we ended up boating six tarpon and jumping off another 4 or so. Just incredible fishing and no sharks really to deal with which was great. After a couple hours though things kind of start to fizzle out. We’re not seeing as much and I’m sure we could still catch one if we worked really hard but being we had such a banner morning it just kind of feels like it’s time to be done so we call it a day! So it’s great to see such good fishing right now I’m hoping it will hold through the rest of September and October. I’ve been saying I feel things had been building up to have a great fall season of fishing just with the cleaner water we’ve had in areas of the backcountry and all the bait that showed up a few months ago. I’ve also been running the boat a little more now since Capt. Stephen is on vacation and I’ll take a few more trips this month if anyone is interested drop me a line. Steve will be back in October though I may still run a few trips then as well. Come take advantage of good fishing and light crowds in Islamorada!
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina
