Got out with Mike and Will today for a 3/4 day. We were after tarpon. I had caught bait yesterday afternoon on the way home, so had some live ones in good shape and we decided to give it an early departure. I like to get out early and go the extra mile doing that sometimes especially when fishing is tough. It sort of paid off – we had our first and only bite within about 20 minutes. Unfortunately the fish didn’t stay on the hook. Conditions were pretty tough though, we had an absolutely ripping current with the near full moon. Hard to keep baits out there. Also the wind shifted and was blowing considerably southeast, so it was pushing the tide even harder. We moved around and tried some spots in the bay where the current wasn’t so bad. We saw a few fish in every spot, but just not our day. Only saw one other boat catch one. We ended up trying close to home for the last hour where I had some luck earlier this week, but not today. Again several boats in there and didn’t see anybody get any action.
I’m off the next couple of days which I’m happy about, it’s gonna be full moon tomorrow night and then going west saturday as we get another late cold front. Probably will make for some tougher tarpon conditions at least tomorrow. Sunday looks nice right now they are saying lighter winds out of the north and the temperature isn’t suppose to drop too much. Tarpon fishing is definitly a little tougher than normal right now for April, you’ll have your windows where it’s good but the rest of the time can be a lot of sitting and waiting. And a lot of other boats around too so sometimes if you aren’t the lucky guy in the right spot, you are watching the action and it’s not a spectator sport! Hopefully it’ll pick up though, looking at my yearly records the last April I had that was tougher, May ended up being a lot better so hopefully that’ll be the case. 0 for 1
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
