Got out with return customer Howard and his buddies Brian and Ed today. I normally don’t fish Fridays but we were able to make an exception today. Had pretty favorable conditions light winds and a little bit of good incoming tide early on for the first hour or so with leavin the dock early. I had bait from a couple of days ago we were able to catch and luckily many of them stayed nice and lively which was surprising for 2 days in the heat we’re experiencing now. Fishing was good to us we found some good groups of fish early on and got a couple of bites our first two stops. Landed a big 100 lb fish that we nearly got boatside but broke off on the leader while trying to roller her over. Then we got a smaller fish around 60 lbs up for good pics. After that the tide quit and a good fleet of boats had shown up. We looked around and found a few small groups of fish but not much action out of them. Once the tide got rolling we didn’t see a whole lot more and lots of boats were in one area that got very congested. We decided to run back near where we had started and sure enough there were a good amount of tarpon there and no other boats. We were able to jump around and hooked five or six more fish and landed 3 more, getting another couple up for good pictures too! So really turned on for us and was perfect after most the boats had left the area.
Fishing still seems pretty good not quite as many fish in the area I’ve been fishing the last couple of months but still a decent amount. I have heard some new fish have shown up some other areas too which is good to hear. Hoping June stays productive for us… so far as so good! July will be just around the corner and we often get some good summer time fishing for smaller resident tarpon in the 20 to 60 lb range. If you are wanting to get out later this summer give me a shout and we’ll get it on the books!
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina
