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Went way into the backcountry since it was slick calm this morning and fished off the beaches.  Mullet were thick we must’ve caught close to 100 in a couple throws!  We didn’t see much for tarpon way out off the beaches.  Very strange this year it hasn’t gotten very good like it was for almost all of June and July last year.  A few days here and there but not much consistently though it was very windy for several weeks which is likely a big factor.  Today we looked hard and eventually saw a fish bust and ran close by and a few were rolling in the area.  Once we got positioned right we had bites pretty quick, unfortunately they didn’t stay buttoned.  We jumped one off, had one steal a bait, and had the line break on another.  Just one of those days!  The sharks ate us up and we caught plenty of them.  Eventually after jumping around a couple times we got one tarpon to stick that we landed though he pulled off with the leader in hand.  Anyways after that it dried up we tried another area and more shark activity.  1 for 4

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got out today for some more late july tarpon fishing in islamorada with Mike over from the west coast of california. We got out early and caught bait right away which was easy again.  Found tarpon in the same channels as the day before, however today they weren’t very happy.  We jumped around several times and just couldn’t get a bite out of them, fishing the last couple hours of incoming tide.  The old saying ‘no good deed goes unpunished’ played itself out as we watched a fellow captain catch one who I had clued in on the fish the night before.  Anyways that is the way the cookie crumbles!  Afterwards we fished several other areas and found tarpon in one other spot but they wouldn’t eat.  We caught several sharks including a hammerhead which was cool.  Finally the last stop of the morning with the tide falling now, we gave it a little extra time we got a nice 80 lb tarpon.  A nice way to end the day in a spot I hadn’t fished in a long time, glad it paid off!  1 for 1

Got out today after having the last week or so off.  I had some company in town so a few planned days off but it was pretty slow anyways ended up having a couple extra days too.  Funny though first week of august I am slammed for 7 days in a row… go figure!  Anyways I fished today and looks like a couple more trips later this week too.  We got out after some tarpon the conditions were good, light winds in the morning that picked up a little in the afternoon.  Bait was easy we crushed the mullets and found the tarpon thick and happy in one of the channels.  We fished the last couple hours of the tide and had 7 bites and landed 4 tarpon, it was incredible.  Afterwards we caught a couple goliath groupers, some big sharks, and a few trout for dinner.  All in all a fabulous day!  I think fishing will be very good throughout the week, I have some days off on wednesday and thursday I think which will be lobster ‘mini season.’  If you are here for that and want to go fishing it can be good as there is NO lobstering in everglades national park so you can get away from all the crazies!  Anyways tomorrow I’ll likely give the tarpon a try again the conditions should be good the next few days.  4 for 7

Capt. Rick Stanczyk