5/18/17 May Tarpon Fishing Islamorada Windy Day

The wind was howling again today 25 knots or so… really kicking!  We stayed close today as I had Pete & crew again and wanted to just do something different.  We fished the backcountry the last 3 days and with the winds howling like they are, figured we’d just try staying close.  The tides were very weird with a weak falling tide and hard wind, it didn’t seem to move much early.  We didn’t get a bite early on, but on the 2nd stop after sitting for an hour or so, we hooked a nice 80 lb fish that we landed relatively quickly.  Pulled the hook but well after we had him to the leader several times, just couldn’t get him to stay turned for the boatside picture.  After that a couple other boats in the area also hooked up, and that was it.  We decided to run down to some of the other bigger bridges and channels.  Marked quite a few fish on the bottom and saw one roll… I figured we’d wait it out.  We caught a few sharks, then hooked a nice 100 lb tarpon!  Another fairly quick fight we landed him in 15 minutes or so, but again had him on the leader and he chaffed through it before we could get him to lay still, but at least got a good jump shot of him.  After that things slowed down no more bites, but on a windy day like this to catch two is very good that’s for sure!  Anyways tomorrow is the last day hopefully our lucky streak will continue.  Looks like monday things will get nice again hopefully for a little while anyways, I’m ready for the calm days of summer to be here!  2 for 2

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

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