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Went after some tarpon today on a 3/4 day trip.  Winds were honking a bit again for this time of year, and again looks like that trend will continue through the week.  Also coming up on the full moon tonight.  We found a good amount of tarpon right where we left them yesterday, however they were a little finicky today!  We did get bit to start off within 20 minutes or so, but the fish jumped at us and spit the bait right away.  After that we jumped around about 5 times, catching some sharks and such to keep us busy including some big lemons, blacktips and nurse sharks.  We were in tarpon every move, but they just didn’t want to play.  May have been the full moon, or the wind, or some combination of both.  But I always tell people booking ahead of time try and avoid right around the full moons as often it can make for tougher day time fishing as I think they feed more at night then.  However this was a more short notice trip so you have to work with what you got.  But we still were able to make it happen after a couple hours as the tide  quit and turned in, we jumped another tarpon and then a few minutes later the other rod went off and we hooked a nice 55 lber.  Got him in for pictures so that was great.  I thought they might feed more with the tide turning, but they kind of seemed to die out.  We had a few tarpon go by us again but no more bites and then didn’t see much.  Anyways at least there is a good group of them back there.  Hopefully they’ll be a little happier tomorrow we’ll see.  1 for 3

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Fantastic day with return customers Chris and his son Thiago. Winds were kicking a bit for this time of year, and looks like that’ll continue for a bit into next week. At least it was more southeasterly instead of the West wind we had last week. We found some tarpon early on where we first stopped which was nice. Had to move around to get lined up right, but soon Chris caught a nice 40 lber. Thiago got the next one about a 65 lber! A few blacktips and a nurse shark after that. As the tide quit, we jumped 1 more tarpon that came at us on the bite. Always harder to hook when they do that. We went for a ride after that since the tide was slacking. Checked a few other area but didn’t see a whole lot to get excited about. We went tripletailing after that. Saw a decent amount and caught a nice 10 lber to start! A couple other small ones, and the rest were very Leary about eating bait! They were looking at it but not committing. We saw a few more tarpon as we were looking so we gave that another whirl. Soon Thiago had another nice one on about a 70 lber that we landed. A bit later Chris got another good one about 60 lbs, we got the leader on and he got under the boat though. Quite a few more tripletails going by during that we had enough time to catch a couple more as they got happier. Did see about a 15 lber that didnt want to eat but got us very excited! After that called it a day. So great fishing hopefully the tarpon stick around a bit longer.  4 for 6

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Great day with Brandon and his wife Gosia visiting from Canada! They were after tarpon and didn’t mind mixing it up a little either. I told them that wouldn’t be a bad idea, as the tarpon had been a little hit and miss lately. We started looking for bait, which took a bit but we got into a good area and caught what we needed eventually. We looked for tarpon in a couple spots and didn’t see much. I decided to look elsewhere, where I thought I had seen some tarpon activity the day before but wasn’t 💯sure of. Anyways we got there and sure enough saw some signs of life. We set up and soon Gosia had a nice 50 lb tarpon on! She fought him well and we got some good pics. We lined up on a other fish and it was Brandon’s turn. He got a 35 lber to the hand! We had one more zip is that we missed, and then caught a couple sharks. Weather started to build and get near, but soon broke up and it was nice afterwards staying overcast for a while. We then found some redfish and had fun with them, and Gosia got a snook for a Backcountry slam! We finished the day chasing tripletail again, and caught quite a few I think 10 or so. Headed home after that, nice productive day and always lovely when everything you try works and things just click. Hasn’t been so easy lately especially with the poons, but that’s fishing! Last couple days I fished we did not target tarpon, but had plenty of reds, tripletails, and big lemon sharks.  2 for 2

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing