More insanely high winds today it was blowing 25-30 out of the southeast! My guys over from England wanted to give it a shot, so we left out early at 6 AM. I had caught bait yesterday and had it stashed away. We tried locally in some channels first thing, where there had been a little bit of a bite yesterday and we had gotten a tarpon. However today was a different story, we caught a couple sharks, big jacks, and a sting ray, in 2 spots and about 2 1/2 hours of fishing. Of the 10 or so other boats in the area, I only saw one hook a tarpon (right next to us of course!) We did have a tarpon bust in between our baits, but never gave us a nibble. After that we tried to head down to Long Key bridge where there had been a good bite earlier in the week when it was calmer. However it was just too rough to fish comfortably. We got in a little trouble getting the anchor line tangle on my transducer as I was moving trying to avoid the boat bumping into the bridge from the big swells. Luckily we got everything straightened out but did bump into the bridge and get a nice little crack in my gel coat, but some days thats the price of admission! Anyways after that the guys wanted to get some stuff for dinner so we bailed on the tarpon and caught some nice mangrove snappers in the channels. Well I had a nice little roll of catching fish while it lasted but all good things must come to an end. Looks like tomorrow the winds are suppose to come down a little bit, and Tuesday looks like it’ll be very nice… let’s hope so! 0 for 0
Month: April 2017
4/29/17 Late April Tarpon Fishing in Islamorada
Winds kicked up today about 25 mph out of the southeast so it was rough! My guys booked me last minute as I had the day scheduled off but decided to fish the morning if someone wanted to go. We tried locally around the bridges and didn’t have much luck, it was tough fishing with the kicking wind, weed, etc… We ended up fishing close to home the last hour and a half, and within 20 minutes we hooked a nice 100 lb tarpon! It ended up taking the rest of the morning to catch, we got him on the leader several times but he wouldn’t cooperate for a boatside picture, so we ended up popping him off as we were trying to get him to roll over. Anyways the guys were happy to land one they had fished down at bahia honda the night before and hooked 6 (it’s supposedly going off down there right now!) but they didn’t get any to the boat as most got in the bridge, jumped off, and one even got eaten by a shark! Unfortunately we didn’t get the good pics of this one, but they were happy to have officially caught one. Full day tomorrow, may head down to the big bridge at long key as it’s been good fishing down there though I really don’t like dealing with the 50+ boats there but with as windy as it is, might be the best option. 1 for 1
4/28/17 Islamorada Tarpon Backcountry Fishing Report
Fished way out back again today since my crew wanted a little variety of ‘big stuff.’ We caught plenty of sharks including blacktips, sharpnoses, lemon, and even a big ‘sawfish’ which was cool! We ended up only having one tarpon bite though we caught it thankfully. It was windy and out of the south not the nicest conditions back there but not too bad for my big old boat. Just got booked for a half day tomorrow, was gonna take the day off but figured i’d just fish the morning. Supposedly there has been a good bite closer down to marathon around some of the bigger bridges, but dont think we’ll have the right tidal window for that with our time frame. Also there’s been about 50 boats down there and I imagine on the weekend it’ll be even more… So likely will fish locally hopefully there will be a few hungry ones! 1 for 1
4/27/17 Tarpon Fishing Islamorada in April 2017
Got out with Rob and his buddy Roger for a days fishing. We ventured out into the backcountry to get away from the crowds since the winds weren’t too bad, 10-15 out of the south east and it got nicer as the day went on. We had good action with sharks and after a couple moves got on to a little tarpon bite. We ended up not having good luck keeping them on the hook, we jumped 3 of them off! The tide started to die around 10:15 and I was thinking hope might be lost but we stuck it out a little longer and roger hooked one, not huge but a nice 35 lber, that we landed. Good way to finish! After that we took some crocodile and bird photos, and tried a couple other stops back there and locally for tarpon but not much else going on in the afternoon. Glad to have gotten another tarpon! Tomorrow I’ll be venturing out back again I think, being the weekend the bridges are just too crowded! 1 for 4
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
4/26/17 Everglades Florida Keys April Tarpon Fishing
Got out with the crew from RI again today. We did a 3/4 day and ran back into the everglades. Had good falling tide until a little after 10:00 or so, gave us a good 3 hour window of fishing. We saw quite a few busting and jumping tarpon in the area. Our sister boat got on a couple early, we only had shark bites sitting about 30 yards away. We moved around but still no luck. We then moved a bit further out where we had seen fish busting, and ended up catching a couple smaller tarpon out there in the 25-40 lb range. Was glad to get ’em! Our sister boat caught one out there as well. After the tide quit it slowed down and we made our way back home. Full day tomorrow, not sure if I’ll head back there again it is nice to get away from the crowd of 20 boats around the bridges! 2 for 2
