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4/15/14 Mid April Afternoon tarpon fishing report

Well had a 3/4 day trip today with regulars Dave and Roseann.   We ran into the backcountry to look for some tarpon.  It was horrible conditions which were unforeseeable unfortunately.  The dreaded ‘red weed’, this nasty mangy type of grass that comes in from time to time was horrendous.  It just gets all over your baits and lines and makes it pretty much unfishable as you have to clear your baits every 30 seconds when it is bad as it was.  So we abandoned that plan and decided to try to catch some mangrove snappers.  That worked out well and then we ran back near islamorada to try to tarpon fish for the last bit.  We saw a few rollers in an area that I frequent so we set up.  It took a little while but after 45 minutes we hooked a nice 85 lb fish that ran a good bit and put on quite a show.  We landed him and got some nice boatside pictures.  Caught a couple nurse sharks after that and no other tarpon bites as the tide had slacked and it was time to go in.  Looks like a mild front coming in later tonight, not a real temperature drop but west/north winds this afternoon and tomorrow.  That won’t help the tarpon fishing but shouldn’t push fish out.  Hopefully after it gets nice again we will get some big schools showing up, they have to be close!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

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4/14/14 Florida Keys Tarpon Fishing in April

This morning had a half day.  We did some snapper fishing for dinner and then gave the last hour a try for a tarpon.  Got lucky and had a couple bites, hooking and catching one nice fish of 40 lbs or so.  This evening I had another tarpon trip.  We left a little early to get a bit more of the falling tide which was good the afternoon before. Today was tougher we did not really see many fish rolling and after an hour or so we did hook one and got him to the boat but he jumped off.  After that a few more sharks, a hammer head, and a big jack.  No sign of tarpon in a couple other spots.  We finally ended up dead baiting a channel edge and right near dark we had a couple good bites, one that seemed like a tarpon but no jump.  Then one that was a tarpon for sure.  We chased him down and got the leader on him.  But he pulled the hook before we could get good pictures.  Oh well fun action though.  Have a 3/4 day tomorrow we will see how it goes!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

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4/13/14 More tarpon fishing in islamorada florida keys!

Ran into the backcountry again this morning.  Caught a few mullets early in the dark to have some fresh livies for the day.  We caught a tarpon early on the last of the falling tide and had some shark activity too.  Though once the tide quit and turned we didn’t see anything or have any other bites.  Looked around for some smaller stuff to bend the light rods and that was tough too.. weird day back there!  But our luck got better in the afternoon we ran into a big ball of mullet which we filled the boat with.  We stopped in the marina for 15 minutes to take a bathroom break and clean up the boat.  Then we went out and found some fish locally in the islamorada tarpon fishing channels.  We set up and hooked a nice 50 lb fish within 5 minutes.  Caught him and then set back up and after another 20 minutes had a nice 100 lber on!  Finished the day with that and we were very happy!  Great day!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk