Got out last week for a couple of days… we fished Monday and Tuesday. It’s gotten much more feeling like summer as of late… water temps are up in the 88 degree range and the water is getting that green summer time look. But still a decent number of tarpon around not as many as a few weeks ago. But we are seeing some fish closer to Islamorada which is nice. On Monday I had Thomas and crew and we had a decent day catching four tarpon, three of which we got boatside for pictures they were nice and cooperative for that! We got a couple early on right off the bat. Then we had some misses and it slowed down a little. We ended up jumping a couple fish again before moving up closer towards Islamorad to fish. Then we finished the day with a couple more tarpon a nice 30 lber and then a large 100 lber! Great way to end the day. On Tuesday I had Peter and crew and fishing was very similar. We had one nice 80 lb fish right off the bat that dragged us for over a mile! We had good pressure on the fish too but it was just hooked right in the top lip and hard to get to roll over or cooperate… but we finally did with some patience and proper pressure. After that we had another fish we got leader on that broke us off in the bridge. Similar as the previous day things slowed down a little but we had a few more bites, missing some and losing one in the bridge again. Then we made the same move up to Islamorada when the tide changed and once again we ended up catching another small fish and then a large fish. Only the one in the morning was cooperative for the boatside pics and leader releases on the rest. But both days I think 7 or 8 bites so still decent fishing for the end of May.
I’ll be back at it this upcoming week starting in June. Bait has still been around though not as prevalent as it was. June can get tricky with bait sometimes but I’m hoping the little honey hole we have keeps holding some mullet for a few more weeks! I’m booked out for June though Capt. Trent and Capt. Steve have some dates available. Capt. Steve actually got a SLAM today – tarpon, bonefish, and permit, with some of my oldest customers which was pretty cool. Trent has also had good fishing they had lots of tarpon bites a couple of days ago and caught some muttons and groupers as well.
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina
