Well got back from our little Easter getaway and have an update from last week and yesterday (Monday). Fishing overall has still been on the tough side. Just a strange year we haven’t had many fish show up locally around the channels or bridges here where we are normally seeing big numbers by late March. Not sure what’s going on but it’s really been a grind all day for a bite or two many trips and sometimes not even getting that. Last week we were coming off the full moon and still had chillier than average tempartures with water temps still in the mid 70 range. We struggled most of the week but we did not catch a fish Tuesday (we jumped 1 off and possibly had another bite at the bridge). Wednesday we caught 1 early on at day break and we found a decent group of fish deep in the backcountry but they didn’t bite for us. Then Thursday it slicked off and got real nice and we had a good day on those backcountry fish landing 3 and hooking a couple others. Funny to see a good group of fish in the deep backcountry right now usually those fish are all local here around our channels and bridges and have more or less left the backcountry areas, but as I said it’s a weird year. I left town for the weekend after that and was hopeful maybe that would be the start of things turning around. We had heavy winds over the weekend which I was not sad about missing and then Monday when I fished it was still blowing pretty good but got a little nicer by days end and looks like it’ll be staying in the 15 mph range this week easterly so that’s good. Anyways Monday I ran back to the backcountry hopeful those tarpon would still be there after the windy weather and nobody really had a report over the weekend because it was blowing so hard then. Unfortunately they all but disappeared we put some time in and fished a few areas to give it a try. I only saw one jump and never really marked much of anything. We caught a few sharks and then tried a few other areas back there before running back to near town. Around the bridges we had weak tide and marked a few tarpon in some areas but never had a bite out of them, and tried locally around our local channels the last hour and marked one fish but again no bites but caught a few more sharks. So tough day. Hopefully this week will get better and we’re getting to where the water and all should warm up and be stabile. With the numbers of fish around I imagine it will still be a grind a lot of days but there should be windows where it’s good if you get out early and put the time in. And who knows maybe we’ll get a good push this week or sometime in May and have some strong later season fishing this year. But all in all I must say this is one of the slowlest Aprils I’ve seen.
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina
