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The backcountry was loaded with sharks today.  Hard southeast wind.  Mullet were tough but we did get one good throw and ended up with 30 or so baits.  No tarpon in the backcountry that we saw, but plenty of shark activity.  We fished around local islamorada in the afternoon for a couple hours.  We jumped 2 tarpon, could not keep the hooks in unfortunately.  Also had a big cuda almost jump in the boat after eating a bait, and did land a large ‘mud marlin’ as we call them about 400 lbs… which made up for missing the tarpon at least!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

North wind today we are having another incoming front.  The water temp hasn’t dropped yet but will tonight which will make tarpon fishing a little tougher for a few days.  We had leftover mullet from yesterday and we gave it a go this morning.  We had action pretty quick, bites on both live and dead bait that we missed.  Finally got the hooks in one and caught a nice 65 lb fish the put on a show.  After that a few sharks, then hit the patch reefs for action/dinner.  We tried again in the afternoon in a spot I hadn’t fished before.  We hooked a possible double header after 30 minutes or so, though one dropped the bait and we never saw what it was but it took off like a tarpon.  The other rod had a nice 40 lb fish on the end and we caught him and came home.  Got some good jumping shots which was nice too!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Wind kicked up a bit today.  It was blowing 10 knots out of the southwest.  We tarpon fished around town in the morning.  I had caught some live mullet the night before that we penned up, they stayed pretty healthy.  The tide was coming in and I fished an area I had done well before the last front we had with a similar condition – westerly wind and incoming tide.  The fish were there again and we did well.  We caught 3 out of 8 tarpon on both live and dead bait.  This was in the first 3 hours of the day, pretty good fishing.  After that we went out to the patch reefs and caught dinner, hogfish and snappers!  Tried for tarpon again later in the day down by channel 2, had one mystery fish zip the line pretty good.  Then came back near the marina and not much action there, though a boat that was anchored 100 yard from us was fighting one when we got there and hooked another.  The march islamorada tarpon fishing may get a little slower as the temperature is going to drop a bit, suppose to blow 20+ mph tomorrow and get in the low 60s.  But should only last a day or so.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk