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Got out with Trent and Shannon today for a full day.  Trent had the silver king tarpon on his bucket list.  We decided to give it a whirl.  Conditions looked OK, winds came down a little from the last couple of days, but still blowing decently but was suppose to lay down some in the afternoon.  We caught bait to start the day which was nice and easy.  Headed out into the backcountry to try some tarpon areas first.  Didn’t see a whole lot visually, and it was fairly muddy and churned up from the winds we’ve had.  But eventually saw a little activity, and felt we were in a good zone.  We set up, and soon had a big shark on that we pulled the hook on.  But next Trent hooked a nice 60 lb tarpon which we landed.  Put on quite a show and we got the fish on the leader boat side, but shook off before I could get any good boat side pics.  We decided to try for some other stuff after that, and had good luck with some redfish and snook.  But some smaller tarpon were about as well, and we jumped a couple of them and Trent landed one too!  After that once the tide started to change and come in, we ran into the gulf to look for tripletail which we found a few.  But we saw a tarpon jumping and found a little school of them out there.  Put the baits out and sure enough, hooked and landed our third tarpon of the day!  This one was a big full grown one about 125 lbs.  Awesome day with not so awesome conditions – very happy!  The tarpon definitely seemed happier today as far as how they were responding, I imagine if it calms down it’s really going to go off!  3 for 5

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

Got out with return customer Irv and his buddy Bill.  We decided to stick to the backcountry with possibilities of small tarpon and hopefully snook, redfish, and the like.  Today the wind was cranking 25 mph southeast, with a little bit of rain to dodge as well.  We caught some dinner fish early, and then picked away at a few redfish and snook in some spots in the everglades.  But we eventually got in an area loaded with small tarpon.  Tide was coming in, and they were happy!  We had a good rally, hooking about 6 of them and landing 3 with a technical release on a 4th to the boat.  Then they shut off.  But it was fun!  The little tarpon are funny like that if you hit ’em at the right time, they bite good, but otherwise it can be like waiting for grass to grow waiting for a bite.  Anyways we made a good move today and had great fishing despite tough conditions.  Back at it tomorrow, tarpon is on the list so we’ll likely be trying it at some point.  4 for 6

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

Got out with Larry, Jay, Rex, and Trip today.  Larry had wanted to try to catch a tarpon, but we also wanted to get some action for the boys Rex and Trip.  We hit the tarpon grounds first.  Had some leftover bait from yesterday.  A big mess of fish back there, same ones I’m sure that pushed in yesterday.  They were jumping and flopping all over.  Not biting real great though.  We put in a good hour and made several moves, a few shark bites and that was it.  But finally we got in the right spot and jumped a nice tarpon off!  Then about 5 minutes later, hooked another that stayed on.   Larry fought him well and we got him to the leader next to the boat, but unfortunately he threw the hook before we could get him laid up for pictures.  Anyways a technical release.  After that we ended up trying for some mackerels out in the gulf but didn’t have much luck with that.  It was pretty windy so took a while to travel, but we tried again for tarpon after that and got some big sharks and a sawfish that we didn’t get a good look at because we couldn’t budge him.  But we finished the day off with redfish catching about 40 or so.  All in all not a bad day, and always good to get a tarpon!  The tarpon fishing still isn’t red hot though there are plenty of fish around, I think once it calms down and the water warms up a few more degrees, it should go off.  And in all honesty, it’s probably better for our normal season fishing that it doesn’t get too good too early.  1 for 2

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