The wind was blowing but fishing was red hot. The incoming tide with the wind behind it plus powdery blue water being pushed in from offshore made for good fishing. We caught bait early this morning, they weren’t easy but we finally got a good toss up on the flat in the dark and caught about 30 baits. Most of our action was on dead bait today but we caught 4 out of 4 big tarpon 60 to 100 lbs. The first one never jumped once and was a moose 100+ lbs. The rest were much more acrobatic. We had a couple other zip the baits that sounded like tarpon but can’t know for sure. Afterwards we went snapper fishing and we even caught a baby tarpon while snapper fishing, they wouldn’t leave us alone today! Great day 5 tarpon. Taking a day off tomorrow suppose to be blowing hard from the west as we get another minor front. Good day to get some rest!
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
3/16/14 Islamorada afternoon tarpon action
The backcountry was loaded with sharks today. Hard southeast wind. Mullet were tough but we did get one good throw and ended up with 30 or so baits. No tarpon in the backcountry that we saw, but plenty of shark activity. We fished around local islamorada in the afternoon for a couple hours. We jumped 2 tarpon, could not keep the hooks in unfortunately. Also had a big cuda almost jump in the boat after eating a bait, and did land a large ‘mud marlin’ as we call them about 400 lbs… which made up for missing the tarpon at least!
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
3/13/14 Prefrontal fishing in the florida keys
North wind today we are having another incoming front. The water temp hasn’t dropped yet but will tonight which will make tarpon fishing a little tougher for a few days. We had leftover mullet from yesterday and we gave it a go this morning. We had action pretty quick, bites on both live and dead bait that we missed. Finally got the hooks in one and caught a nice 65 lb fish the put on a show. After that a few sharks, then hit the patch reefs for action/dinner. We tried again in the afternoon in a spot I hadn’t fished before. We hooked a possible double header after 30 minutes or so, though one dropped the bait and we never saw what it was but it took off like a tarpon. The other rod had a nice 40 lb fish on the end and we caught him and came home. Got some good jumping shots which was nice too!
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
