Well I had a couple days off, Sunday was a planned day off and yesterday we had imminent threats of rain and lightning in the morning so I called it off. I had caught a cold too and wasn’t looking forward to being drizzled on after fishing monday. Anyways I am better now. Unfortunately the tarpon fishing has definitely slowed down we had a little bit of a late front hit us and the water has chilled down to 74 degrees or so. Monday we had ran in the backcountry to fish and normally I wouldn’t of gone back there but my customers wanted to. We only had 2 shark bites fishing the big rods and then we did catch a load of trout, ladyfish, snapper, and jacks to bend the rod. No tarpon bites back there but didn’t expect it to be much good. This morning around town here I was surprised how cold the water had got, usually with an incoming tide and being closer to the Atlantic it would of stayed a little warmer. But anyways we had a north breeze and plenty of fish around but they were not really happy. We had fished 5 different spots and saw fish in each spot but only had one bite. A small fish on dead bait and he threw the hook soon after we hooked him. I didn’t see anyone out there catch a fish and there was a lot of boats as there is a tournament going on. Things should improve the wind has slicked out now and I imagine it will warm up considerably given a day and that should make the fish much more happy. I’ve got a night trip tonight hopefully that will be better. 0 for 0 and 0 for 1
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
5/2/15 May Tarpon Fishing in Islamorada
Well the last couple days we’ve had some difficult tarpon fishing conditions. We had a late cold front hit us and had pretty hard northwest winds followed by north this morning and now finally has swung around east again. But very blustery for the most part. This morning we got on the bait good first thing in the morning and were able to load up. We had some good action early down by the bridges. Quite a few cheap shots and 3 solid bites. Unfortunately we had one fish that just pulled off the hook, another that chaffed through the leader after 5 minutes, and the 3rd we got the leader on though he proceeded to run through the power line legs and cut us off. All the best action was on the harder incoming tide as soon as it let up by 10:00 or so things slowed down. We did come across a nice ball of bait and caught some more then fished near home to catch the falling tide. Found some tarpon but they weren’t interested in feeding so we called it a day. Anyways we got 1 on a technical release anyways. Yesterday we patch fished in the morning and that was good for porgy and hogfish. We tried tarpon later in the day and had one cheap shot by the bridges further south but unfortunately once the tide got rolling the weed got extremely thick and made it almost unfishable. We tried dead baiting and caught a few sharks and a ‘mud marlin.’ Well tomorrow I have the day off so hopefully things will have a chance to rebound, the wind has swung back out of the east and hopefully it will stay there! 0 for 0 and 1 for 3.
4/30/15 Half Day Tarpon Fishing Report
Had a morning half day and evening trip today. Bait was fairly good this morning we were able to catch enough live bait to fish with and had some dead ones from the previous day. The morning was tough fishing our conditions weren’t very favorable with a ripping northwest wind. We found a pile of fish at the bridge on the bayside but they were not very cooperative. We had a cheap shot bust on a bait early. Then a little later a fish flash a bait but not eat it. Then eventually did have a bite but it was near the tide change and the fish came right at us and we werent able to reel quick enough to get tight and set the hook. Though it is tough to hook them when they come at you. Anyways that was about it on tarpon action we caught a few sharks and jacks. Caught a little more bait in the afternoon but it was tough but a few extra livies for the evening. The evening fishing was pretty good we had consistent action throughout the whole trip. Good fishing at the bridge we were only able to land 1 fish but we had 5 solid bites plus a few other cheap shots. Once the tide quit we came back up near home in the channels and had a couple other good bites and cheap shots as well. Lots of small fish and the mullets were big, plus the tide was fairly weak in the later part of the night again making it tough to feel the bites and get tight on the fish quickly. Anyways the action was great and we were happy to of landed 1. 0 for 1 and 1 for 7.
