Back in town again and back on the hunt for tarpon today. We got out early and stumbled into some decent bait around the islands with the last of the incoming tide this morning. Had to work a little at it but managed to catch 3 dozen or so. Ran off the beach and had caught the last trickle of incoming tide, so we had to sit and wait for the tide change which took close to an hour. Just a few sharks while we waited. Once the tide got rolling some more sharks started to bite, got a nice little hammerhead among some others too, and eventually we moved around and saw a few tarpon roll. I got in front of them and soon we were getting some tarpon action. We caught a couple tarpon really quick both 40 lbers or so. Then hooked a couple more one we battled for a few minutes but he jumped and threw the hook, the other we got up near the boat for pictures but he unfortunately broke off on the leader before we could get some good boat side pictures. Finally we moved around a little more and hooked and caught about a 60 lber which fought very well. We were able to subdue him and get some good boat side pictures. Great job by Dylan and Dawson they each caught their first tarpon and then some, and also later on in the day they each got their first snook as well, plus plenty of mangrove snappers. Fishing the next few days through the weekend then have some open days in mid august. This is the last month for really consistent tarpon fishing if your down here, let’s go catch that silver king! 4 for 5
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
7/28/15 Late July Florida Keys Tarpon Fishing Report
Well yesterday I had just a half day and we caught some snappers for dinner and a couple other things. Fishing wasn’t easy we had the last couple of days with hard southwest winds due to the rain storms around. Today things were much nicer it was a light southwest wind and no rain. I had leftover bait and we ran right to the channels to try some tarpon fishing. We jumped one fish off after about 30 minutes and caught a shark. Saw a few tarpon rolling but not a whole lot. Eventually we ran out off the beaches to try and moved around a little but finally found a few fish. I didn’t have a whole lot of bait but we were able to catch two and jumped another one off. A few more sharks as well. Things got very hot again today hopefully doesn’t hurt the fishing. We did find a pile of mullet on the way home too. Tomorrow I have a half day just rod bending, and then out of town for a week or so. 2 for 4
7/26/15 Islamorada Tarpon Fishing Report late July
Well we got rained out yesterday I did get booked but it looked too bad to make the 20-30 mile run into the backcountry so we cancelled. Today I had the same guys and we made it out but things were still a little nasty. Lots of weather around and blowing hard west in the morning then swung around south. Bait was tough I tried two areas and didn’t see much and we finally saw a few on the flat in a mud and were able to get a couple dozen. Saw a good handful of tarpon busting on edge of the flat of one of the channels and we set up there, though could not get any action out of them. Literally had fish rolling on top of our baits a half dozen times but they would not eat. So eventually I moved into the channel and not much, not even much for sharks. Finally jumped again further out of the channel mouth and we had a couple bites from tarpon. Unfortunately they both came unbuttoned right away. We caught a few more sharks and then ran out of bait. I caught bait pretty good after that mid day since it was overcast and we tried some other channels but the rain soon chased us back towards home. It wasn’t too bad there so we fished the last hour close by, but unfortunately no luck there with the tarpon. Tough day but we worked hard at it and had some shots, but you just don’t always connect. Tomorrow I’m just snapper fishing for a half day (hopefully) if we can get out. 0 for 2
