Got out with John and Jan today. They are fishing with me the next two days as well. Tarpon wasn’t high on their list of priorities, they just wanted to bend the rod and have fun. But with the slicked off conditions and since we had some leftover bait from the other day, I figured we ought to at least take a look. We caught plenty of mackerel early in the morning, then looked for tripletail on the way to the beaches. Didn’t see much for tripletail, and out at the beach it didn’t look like much going on. But off in the distance I saw a fish free jump and we ran over there. We got into a good little pile of ’em, and within 5 minutes we hooked a nice 80 lber for John! He fought him for about 15 minutes or so and we landed him, then tried to set back up. Not much other activity though, we caught a few sharks and then the tide quit. I moved around a bit, and kept seeing a handful of tarpon around. Eventually the tide got going and we moved around a bit more. Right when we were about out of bait with 5 minutes or so left, Jan hooked up a nice fish! Right about the same size as Johns, though I’d have to say a pound or two bigger! We landed him too and then headed home. Was great to get them each one, sometimes you get sucked into staying somewhere when you catch a nice fish right away, at least this time it paid off. The next couple days we have some north wind coming, and then the weekend it’s suppose to be blowing like crazy with a minor front hitting us. I probably won’t be tarpon fishing and doesn’t sound like it’ll be very good anyways. But maybe sometime next week. 2 for 2
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
3/1/17 March Tarpon Fishing in Islamorada
Got out with Brian and Trevor today. We did a mixed bag trip and gave tarpon a try for part of the day. We caught some mullet in the muds on the way out, so had plenty of good fresh bait. Mackerels were good in the morning. We tried the backcountry channels later on for sharks/tarpon. Not much activity back there though again today, yesterday it was slow too. I did mark a few fish that I’m pretty sure were tarpon, but no bites just a couple small blacktips and a big nurse shark. We then did some more light tackle stuff and caught some trout. Finished up near home again in the channel where we caught one yesterday. We hit it right at the tide change and I thought once the tide got going, we’d for sure get a shot. But again no bites, we hooked a big sting ray that cut us off and that was it. I did see some fish roll and several on the bottom too… None of the 4 boats there got a bite. Anyways we gave it a good hard shot, hopefully it’ll be better tomorrow! 0 for 0
2/28/17 February Islamorada Tarpon Fishing Report
Got out with Brian and Bob today and tarpon was on their bucket list. We caught some mullet early on I hadn’t been using them much but I figured it’s getting close to that time. We were able to find a mud after a little looking around. After a few empty throws we caught about 2 dozen. We tried the backcountry channels in the AM and not much going on back there. The sharks weren’t even really biting! We moved around a bit and with all the wind and mud didn’t see a whole lot except for 1 tarpon roll. But after over an hour we hadn’t had a bite just one little shark so we moved on. The next channel we caught another couple sharks and that was it, no signs of tarpon life. We decided to bend the light rods a little for an hour or so, and did catch some nice trout. We then ran back towards Islamorada to give the local channels a try which I haven’t really fished yet this year. We set up and after about 25 minutes or so, Brian hooked a great 80 lb tarpon! He jumped a few times and then we landed him after a 20 minute battle. I didn’t see any other fish rolling but did see a few on the bottom machine, so hopefully they’ll stick around. We may be giving it a try again tomorrow! 1 for 1
