Another great week of tarpon fishing here in Islamorada in May! We had some heavy winds early in the week and last weekend after we had a long stretch of flat calm in earlier May. I did not fish Monday but Tuesday it was blowing a good 20 knots and she was rippin’! I had Mike and Steve who’ve fished with me a for a few years now. We had the end of the incoming tide and we ran down to the bridges. We found some areas where the waves weren’t super super bad and found plenty of fish. They were happy I think we ended up hooking 6 or 7 and we landed a couple fish but weren’t able to get hands on them. That is always extra difficult in that kind of wind but a good time and lots of action. Wednesday I had Steve down for the first time fishing and it was similar conditions though slightly less windy though still blowing pretty good. We had similar fishing though we got hands on one fish and landed 4 more to the leader before popping off. So an excellent bite again and great to see this late in the season! Thursday the winds let up somewhat but it was blowing more out of the south and the bite got a little bit tougher. We ended up having three bites and landed a fish for Sterling we got pictures of and had a leader release on another that popped off after a good 45 minute battle. And the last one beat us into the bridge very quickly. Bait had started to get difficult that day but we had enough to fish with thankfully. Friday we had to keep our fingers crossed on bait it got slick calm and there hadn’t been much bait around. We had an order in with the mullet guy and we went out and spent an hour looking for bait early. Didn’t see much but we finally came across a little bit in the middle of the bay but with the slick calm conditions it was near impossible to get on them. We caught a couple ladyfish which we actually got a couple tarpon bites on though! The mullet man thankfully came through he had to go all the way up to the stretch in Key Largo to find bait but he got me, Steve, and the other boat in our group a dozen each. We finally got down to the bridge and fishing around 8:30 and thankfully it was actually pretty good we ended up hooking 5 tarpon landed 3, getting one good one to the hand with the Charleston crew. The other boats in the group also got a couple of face grabs as well and I think all 9 of the guys involved got to pull on a tarpon at least. So still some pretty good fishing overall in Islamorada but as mentioned the bait is getting to be the tough thing. We are also coming up on the full moon so that may shuffle the deck so to speak but we’ll see what happens. We just did not have much bait in the local islamorada and lower matecumbe area this year so now that it’s drying up it’s hard to find. I’m sure the mullet guys are going to stop here soon as it’s just not worth it for them anymore either. But we may start fishing more in the backcountry here soon where we can catch bait or catch other things to use for bait on rod and reel if we absolutely need to. Every season and every year is different with the things you do and the tactics and I can tell that will be the difficult thing here the next few weeks but theres still plenty of fish around. We do start usually catching bait more consistently in July in the backcountry and fishing for the resident tarpon back there but maybe that’ll get better here in June for us too. I’ve got a few days in mid June open myself before we leave for Tennessee for a month, and Capt. Steve and Capt. Luke have dates too. An evening trip can be an option for tarpon too and fishing with the dolphin carcasses is something worth try and those are often easy to obtain for a later evening trip when the offshore boats get in. Those captains are at the ready if you want to try a trip like that.
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina
