Today I did a similar routine as the other day. Today we had a slight south breeze, nice to have a little movement on the water. Did not see many fish today though they were there. We caught 2 first thing in the morning on the last of the outgoing tide. After that we caught some snappers and a few pinfish for snook bait. Found that big mud again when the tide started coming in and caught a few dozen mullet out of it. We messed around with some snook but were not able to land any unfortunately. After that I tried off the beaches and we jumped a tarpon right away, and caught a few sharks. We saw a few fish rolling near us and moved over and we caught a nice cobia soon after. Eventually we got another tarpon bite and landed a nice 40 lber. Good day overall! Have a 3/4 day tomorrow and I know tarpon is on the list. I’ve found a nice school of fish in the early mornings and I think I can pick a few off each day consistently hopefully the next week or so. 3 for 4
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
7/12/15 Mid July Tarpon Fishing Report in Islamorada
Well had Friday off for some boat maintenance and then I fished yesterday morning but not for tarpon just trout, snapper, etc… Though last night I went out with a few friends for a couple hours and we tarpon fished. Luckily during the day yesterday we ran across a big ball of mullet and I was able to put a few away. Last night we fished close by, sharks were pretty active the first hour and then we hooked a nice 50 lb tarpon Virginia caught. Good battle on lighter tackle. We fished another hour but things died down no more bites or activity and came in. Today I had a full day in the backcountry I had some bait to start with and we tried some channels where I hadn’t fished lately. Flat calm today we saw plenty of porpoises in there and a few tarpon rolling around. Tide was slack though once it started to trickle in we had a bite and caught a nice 40 lb fish. After that the fish seemed to have moved on we only saw one more roll and then they quit. We caught a few more baits the same ball we had seen the day before. Tried the beaches and saw more fish out there then I had seen the last week but they did not want to cooperate. We moved around several times and saw a couple jumpers and a handful rolling around but just sharks, though we did get 4 hammerheads which was cool. After that I tried another area and we saw tarpon there too, again moved around to get in front of them a few times, but no bites. We finally tried again close to home and even saw a couple tarpon there roll eventually but still no bite. Anyways good to see fish around in several different areas, they will start feeding again at some point! 1 for 1 and 1 for 1
7/9/15 July Florida Keys Tarpon Fishing Report
More tarpon fishing today. Yesterday we did not have time to give it a try but we got my angler several goliath groupers which he was after! Today I had a 3/4 day. We caught some bait in the back it was tough again though we managed a couple dozen. The baits been up on the flats not in the deeper areas where it is usually easier to catch a bunch at once. Anyways we ran off the beaches and caught the last couple hours of incoming tide. Did not see much for fish showing, no rollers really just a handful we saw splash. After several sharks and moving a couple times, we finally hooked up to one nice 75 lber right as the tide started to slow down. A good battle and we got the leader on him, though unfortunately were not able to get the boatside trophy picture we were after. That was the only bite we had the tide soon quit and I tried in some channels further west where the tide was still moving for the last 45 minutes but nothing going on there. Day off tomorrow for some boat service and nothing booked for Saturday at this time though may take some friends fun fishing in the evening. 1 for 1
