Well we gave the tarpon a try today in the afternoon. Mullet were thick this morning around the islands where we’d been catching a lot of pilchards lately. The pilchards were not to be seen however. Anyways we caught little bait elsewhere and caught some snook and a nice redfish in the morning plus plenty of snappers. I was running out towards the gulf looking for tarpon and we spotted a free jumper. Set up near him and we saw fish starting to roll all around. I was anticipating quick action however it never came. We had one fish pick up a bait and I think spit it soon after. He jumped but did not ever pull drag. After that we had caught a few sharks, we waited through the tide change and moved around a couple times. Saw fish everywhere but they were just not active or happy. Anyways there are still tarpon around and the weather is warm. I talked to my buddy a few days ago he had a similar report they spent all day trying to get a tarpon for his angler, watching them roll all over but they just did not want to respond. But tomorrow they may go crazy who knows. Anyways catching tarpon is still possible until it starts getting cold, but I just wouldn’t bet the farm on it. It’s worth trying for part of the day and best to focus on other things. 0 for 1
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
10/7/15 October Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
Got out for a full day today. Not great conditions a little southwest breeze in the morning that faded to nothing later. However it had been blowing hard west the last few days and the backcountry water was all kinda of mixed up. We were hoping to do some snook and redfish fishing however back at cape sable the water was super dirty and with the crazy tides the water was already fairly high when we got there and bait was all spread out and tough to catch. We tried fishing shrimp a little but no luck and the bugs swarmed us so we switched gears. We did some jigging and caught some ladyfish which we saved for bait. We ended up finding some tarpon in one of the flamingo channels and we got a couple bites. Jumped a nice 30 lb fish off and then landed this nice 40-50 lber. We also got a few shark bites and landed a nice blacktip. Great way to end the day with plan B. I’ve got a little stretch of a week of fishing days book here mid october which is nice. I’ve been enjoying some time off. But fishing should be getting good hopefully a little more north easterly wind will clean the water up and start the bait run up again. 1 for 2
9/30/15 Late September Florida Keys Tarpon Fishing
Haven’t updated in a while though I have not really been fishing much for tarpon lately. I have gotten out a few days, some half days in the bays fishing for snapper. That has been good action with some nice size mangrove snappers on cut bait. We’ve also had a few good days snook fishing in the everglades and the bait run is continuing to push some big bait schools back there, leading to good fishing. Today we ended up catching a tarpon at the end of the day, not really fishing for them but we stopped in a spot that i see some juveniles in once in a while. We got lucky and hooked and caught a 20 lber, then jumped another one off. Using live pilchards for bait. Anyways it was a little rough to go look out off the beaches but I heard there had been some tarpon out there busting the big bait schools that are starting to show up. Mid October is a good time for that sometimes, and it is right around the corner. 1 for 2
