We had another stellar day today in the everglades backcountry of islamorada tarpon fishing. Bait was a little tougher today had to throw quite a few times and just pick at them a few at a time. But we got what we needed and I had some leftovers from yesterday. Luckily my anglers showed up extra early so that helped since bait was more difficult! We ran out where we found tarpon yesterday and had the last bit of incoming tide. We had shark activity right away and soon after a nice 40 lb tarpon. We landed him, he fought well though was foul hooked which explained why. After that we set back up and the tide was just slacking and we jumped another fish of about the same size. Once the tide started falling again we had a couple more tarpon bites and landed both those fish, both in the same size range, plus several more sharks including some big blacktips. After that the wind picked up and things seemed to kind of shut down so we tried some other stuff. Finished our day with a few trout and snapper, and about half a dozen snook. 3 for 4
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
6/21/15 June Tarpon Fishing in Islamorada continues!
More tarpon fishing today we got out at 6 AM nice early start. Caught some bait on the way out. Tried some local channels with the last trickle of incoming tide followed by a quick turnaround of falling tide. Saw some fish but they really didn’t respond, tried a couple places where we saw fish roll and even free jump. After that we ran out off the beaches and found some fish near shore free jumping. We set up and caught some sharks and eventually a nice 35 lb tarpon. After that we moved a few hundred yards down where we saw some fish rolling. Soon we hooked a massive 150 lber that was a battle like none before! The fish dragged us about 4 miles up the beach and then out into the gulf. A school of permit even came up and followed him briefly (we weren’t able to catch any unfortunately). The fish only jumped one when hooked and then just would not give up as we kept heavy drag on him. Eventually we got him to roll over on the leader for pictures and then it was about time to go home. But what a fish and a 2.5 hour battle! We also caught a couple hammerheads and blacktip sharks. 2 for 2
6/20/15 Late June Tarpon Fishing in Islamorada
Well all good things can’t last forever the tarpon fishing has definitely dropped off the last several days in our area of Florida. I had a night trip last night and a trip today we had 1 bite on each trip. Last night unfortunately we did not catch our bite, today we did and we caught a bunch of other stuff including lots of snook, trout, and sharks. But the tarpon you really have to work for and there are only seemingly a handful around. I’ve talked to several guides who are fishing all across the board in Islamorada, the lower keys, and in the everglades and all seem to agree the big bodies of fish have pushed on. Now of course tomorrow that could change and we could get another big push of fish. The summer time fish should settle in more and more, and of course if you get in on a small school of fish early in the morning the action can be hot and heavy. But it definitely takes some work! I’ll be doing some more tarpon tomorrow the good news with my trips is leaving early the bait has been consistent in the backcountry and I have seen a few fish in the main areas I fish so get in on them early with the right bait and you can get a few bites! 0 for 1 and 1 for 1
