Well slower week work wise for me this week I was suppose to fish two days but one of my customers had forgot about there trip so only ended up fishing Tuesday. We had some crazy weather last week with lots of rain flooding a good part of south florida/miami, though we were fortunate down here we didn’t get blasted as hard though still had a good bit. On a positive note it brought down some of the temperatures we’ve been seeing and I’m sure helped drop the salinity in the bay which isn’t a bad thing. I did get out with my dad a few days ago looking around in the backcountry mostly for snook, though I had my eyes open for tarpon while we were fishing. Unfortunately all the tarpon we had found out there 10 or so days ago had disappeared. Not sure if that was the rain or all the southwesterly wind we had last week but definitely didn’t look like what it was in those areas. I had spoken to a few other guides that had fished back there and they didn’t see much in the places they were. But hopefully once it calms down again they’ll return… i think they will and July that fishing usually gets better back there for us.
This week we had 20-25mph easterly winds, much better direction but still a good blow for this time of year. I fished Tuesday with Mike and Kathy and they were down for there 40th wedding anniversary! Mike had wanted to catch a tarpon and we went to work to make it happen. I ended up fishing the bridges all day because as mentioned we didn’t see much for tarpon in the backcountry a couple days before and also with the heavy winds it would take some time to move around if we needed to do that. So i figured better to hunker down around the bridges because I knew there would still be some fish around there. Thankfully there were… we ended up fishing the whole day around the one bridge because we kept seeing fish all throughout the day. The bite wasn’t red hot but that can definitely be the case with 25 mph winds. We ended up hooking one fish right off the bat that we fought for a bit and then it swam into the bridge on us. After that we mad a couple of moves and jumped off another one. After that things quitted down for a bit though we kept at it and on the slack tide about an hour and a half later we hooked a nice fish. Had this one boatside on the leader and nearly rolled over but we pulled the hook trying to subdue her so unfortunately no pictures with the facegrab but a properly landed fish anyhow. Then after that we ended up hooking one more again that we fought for almost an hour and unfortunately same thing she just wouldn’t give up and once more we pulled the hook trying to put the breaks on her next to the boat for the picture. Anyways again not a red hot bite but not bad for 25 mph winds and getting into the time of year where it can be hit or miss a little bit. Tarpon fishing should still be viable and as we get into July and the weather stabilizes I think the backcountry fishing will get better and more consistent for them. I have one more day on Monday and then will be out of town until July 7th. Though Capt. Steve and Capt. Trent will both be available while I’m gone. They’ve both been having luck with tarpon still, Trent has been doing a lot of half days and catching them nearby in the evenings so those trips are still an option. Drop me a line if you would like to get something set up.
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina
