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Got out today my anglers wanted to try to catch a tarpon.  It’s been crappy weather yesterday was rain all day long.  Today was suppose to be more of the same but luckily it wasn’t too bad.  It was over cast with scattered showers but never found us.  We were able to crush the mullet on the way back and fish some of the channels.  A few shark bites early we caught a nice little bull and a big blacktip.  Good to see some sharks biting again they’ve been tough to catch too.  The water seemed to have chilled down a good bit with all the rain and overcast the other day.  Anyways soon after that we hooked a big tarpon and had quite a battle of 30 minutes or so, and Bob landed this nice fish probably close to 100 lbs a good 85 or 90 at least.  Was much bigger than we originally thought.  Anyways after that we lost another shark and then ran out west to try off the beaches.  We caught a shark and hooked another shark we pulled off.  Then I had some boat trouble wasn’t able to get started luckily we were able to get a tow in had to wait a couple hours but didn’t get hammered with rain and were able to catch a few big ladyfish, catfish, and a couple nice pompano while we waited.  Of course back at the dock it was an easy fix there was a fuse I missed and we got things working again – definitely remember that one in the future!  So my customers had a good story to go along with their nice tarpon!  1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Back at it again today i had the same crew from a couple days ago.  We had bait stocked up from the other day and went right to the channels we found fish in the other day.  We fished for about 30 minutes but did not see much for signs of life, no bites.  Though I did see what I thought was possibly a few fish splashing a couple hundred yards up the channel.  We idled up there and set up and sure enough saw a few fish start to roll around us.  We hooked a fish soon after though unfortunately jumped him off, then about 10 minutes later we hooked one that we landed.  While fighting him we did hook another one and briefly had a double header hooked up, though the 2nd one got away.  After that the fish seemed to quit, we saw them busting out at the end of the channel where we started, so I moved back up there, but they seemed to be on their way out, no other action.  We checked around a couple other spots, rain was a factor so we didn’t fish one area.  We then headed near flamingo to try some areas and set up, within 20 minutes we saw a big fish roll, and about 10 minutes later we hooked him.  A nice fish about 100 lbs he put on a very good fight.  We had one other possible bite, something picked up a bait and dropped it.  After that we moved out front to catch the start of the incoming tide.  We set up and fished the last hour, had one good bite we are not sure what it was, and about 10 minutes before we left a tarpon came up behind the boat rolling, but we never hooked him and that was the last of our bait and time to go home.  Anyways landing a couple tarpon in September is a great day!  2 for 4

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Fished a full day today.  I had told my clients that fishing has been a little tough for tarpon so we originally had plans to try some other stuff.  I ran into the backcountry and tried chumming some live bait in a channel and while doing that, of course we started to see several tarpon roll in the channel.  We caught plenty of small live pinfish though I knew mullet would probably be preferential for the tarpon.  The guys were asking me about catching them so I said lets take a quick look and see if we can’t find some mullet.  Luckily enough out off the bank we came across a ball of bait, no birds on them or anything but it was calm enough to see them rippling on the surface.  I made a few throws and we caught got a good crack on caught a cooler full.  We went back and caught the last trickle of falling tide, and within 5 minutes hooked a nice 50 lb fish that we fought for 20 minutes and Eric landed.  After that we set back up, still saw a few fish rolling and the tide was ripping in now.  Though no bites we moved around a few times, but the big herd of fish we saw an hour before seemed to have moved out with the tide.  We still saw a handful roll here and there, but did not have any other bites.  We finished the day trying to catch some snook, no luck with that but we did have one baby tarpon we pulled the hook on, then caught a half dozen nice snappers and a few trout for dinner to finish our day, plus some big ladyfish.  I’m fishing these guys again Saturday, I kept plenty of bait on ice so we will be fully prepared first thing in the AM.  Hopefully they are still there.  If you are looking to go fishing, there are still shots at tarpon through September however bait is often the tough thing to find.  However next Wednesday or so we will have good ‘incoming’ morning tides that make bait more consistently easy.  1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk