Well last week we fished three days for tarpon out back. On Monday we had nice northeasterly wind and I had Jan out. We hooked a half dozen tarpon and landed 3 big ones, getting one up to the boat for pictures! He was super excited and we put that big one on the wall for him with Grays Taxidermy. Great day overall. Now the following day the wind swung around and was blowing hard out of the south… a good 20 mph and it was ‘full moon’ too. It was like somebody flipped the switch and it was rough out there and the tarpon were not happy. We grinded hard for 4 hours and never had a bite out of the tarpon. Not sure if it was the wind, moon, or combination but they weren’t having it. Tried some pinfish too and no luck. We ended up jumping in the creeks and caught a handful of snook and redfish to at least make something happen. Two days after that it was still blowing south but only 10 mph so much nicer. We got out there and hooked 3 tarpon in the first 30 minutes or so. They all came off the hook unfortunately but at least they seemed to be biting right? Wrong. After that they did a complete shutdown again and we fished hard for several more hours only to catch a handful of sharks. We did pick a half a dozen snook at the end of the day at least to do something. I took the long weekend off and was back at it today on Tuesday. It was slick calm and I heard yesterday was decent fishing back there. Tons and tons of fish as far as you could see and they were literally bouncing off the boat. But again not biting great. I think the other 20 boats out there may have had something to do with it… I think they’ve been feeling the pressure. We kept at it and jumped around, moved a couple of miles away from the crowd, and low and behold we hooked a double header! Caught both fish though unfortunately one got sharked before we could get a picture and that ended that. We caught one more tarpon an hour or so later and then also got a nice 27 inch tripletail and a 35 inch bull redfish. So all in all a great day but had to work for those handful of tarpon bites. So lots of fish out there but not always easy but I think it’ll get better as conditions continue to stabilize and maybe once the fishing pressure lets up a little bit. Another front this weekend but not suppose to get cold just a little windy, I think that will give them a break out there and maybe lead to some better response! We’ve got days available if you are looking to fish give us a shout!
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina
