I got cancelled today last minute so I went bait fishing this morning. Wind had been blowing north and was still chilly the last few days though the water temperatures were not extremly cold. This morning it was around 72 degrees. Anyways some friends came, Capt Dave and his buddy Gary. We caught lots of mullet we found in a big mud on a flat. Gary had never caught a tarpon and that was a bucket list fish for him, so I told him we would give it a couple hours. I wanted to see what was going on anyways. We set up in a channel close by the marina where there had been fish previously before the cold weather. After a half hour or so we got a bite on the dead bait, a nice 75 lb fish. We chased him and got some good jumps as you can see from the pictures and landed him in about 25 minutes or so. We tried another area and caught and released several blacktip sharks. So some shark action and a nice tarpon in a couple hours fishing with chilly water and northeast wind in february – not bad at all!
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
2/12/14 Prefrontal tarpon action
Well had an afternoon half day trip today. Originally we were suppose to be doing a tarpon trip, however the customers wanted more action and I told them the tarpon fishing around town middle of the day would likely be tough duty. Especially with a honking 15 kt south/south east wind. So we caught a bunch of snappers for dinner, some big jacks, and then just gave it a try for the last hour. I had caught a load of mullet early this AM so we had plenty of fresh bait. We put dead baits out in one of the channels and had several black tip sharks. After 40 minutes or so I saw a couple fish roll – good sign. Within 10 minutes we had a big 100 lb tarpon on. A few nice jumps and one that gave in fairly easy, had him boatside within 20 minutes, just in time to head on home. So every tarpon trip so far this february has been a success, not a lot of fish on any given day but at least one and a few days with two. That’s really good in my book for the first couple weeks of february! Though the fun may be over for a little bit we have a cold front coming through. 20 knots out of the west tomorrow, then north for a few days. Not going to get really cold but will likely slow the tarpon fishing down for at least a few days until it gets nice again. But who knows may give it a shot tomorrow if it’s really looking nasty in the backcountry!
2/11/14 Florida Keys February Tarpon Fishing
Well the early islamorada tarpon fishing season continues. I had a few days off and the last couple trips were non-tarpon fishing trips. Today in the morning the wind was north I was not really excited about that wind direction for a tarpon trip. My anglers wanted to target big stuff tarpon included. We ran into the backcountry looking for bait. Mullet were very difficult as the wind died when we got to an area with some mullet around. When it is slick calm, it is tough as the mullet are very spooky and the boat doesn’t move much if the tide is weak. After an hour we had about half a dozen mullet and a couple big ladyfish. We went fishing with what we had and first bait in the water we hooked a nice 80 lb tarpon that we landed. After that a large blacktip, and a few smaller blacktips, and a big 150 lb lemon shark. Caught some ladyfish in a ditch nearby and tried again on the last of the incoming tide and the little blacktip sharks at us alive. Any day you catch a tarpon is a good day though, we have some colder weather coming so it may shut the tarpon down for a few days but hopefully won’t drive them away. If your thinking of booking a spring tarpon fishing in the florida keys trip let me know, the rest of my february is already booked up and only a few days left open in march!
february islamorada tarpon
