May 2017

Got out with Frank and his son Colby today for Colbys graduation present tarpon trip!  Conditions didn’t look great but not terrible, breezy out of the southwest not a wind direction I like.  The sargasm weed was pretty bad so made fishing live baits tough.  We caught some bait early and set out around 6:30.  Not much action the first few stops aside from a few bonnet heads.  I did mark several fish on our 3rd stop, and we gave it a good hour or so there.  I was surprise we didn’t get a bite because the fish were definitely hanging out in the area.  After that we checked some oceanside areas and got lucky and found some hungry ones.  We set up and within 15 minutes we had a nice 65 lb fish on for Colby!  It gave us some great jumps, and we got him on the leader but unfortunately he popped off before we could get him up for boatside pictures, but a landed fish none the less.  After that it was time to head on home.  Glad to have gotten one!  Tomorrow looks like it’ll be fairly nasty with high winds and lots of rain possible… not sure if we will make it out but will see what it looks like in the AM.  I’m out of town until next week after that, get back to the grind on Tuesday, hopefully the conditions stay nice as it’s suppose to be a very nice weekend after tomorrow!  1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got out with the same crew as yesterday the New England boys.  We caught some pilchards in the backcountry as we were planning on doing a little snook fishing but tarpon was on the agenda too.  It was rough and nasty where we had found fish off the mainland yesterday… south wind kicked up good 15 mph, which is about one of my least favorite winds in the backcountry.  Anyways it was mudded out and didn’t see any fish, so we bailed and went snook fishing.  Snooking was decent, not a lot of fish but we caught some very nice size ones I think 7 in total.  After that we decided to try tarpon for the last couple hours of the day.  The channels looked good and were a little protected with green water (not too muddy).  It looked like it’d be fishy and we did catch a tarpon there yesterday, but today it seemed dead.  We moved a couple times, and fished very hard, but only had a couple shark bites and that was it.  Sounded like a tough day for a lot of guys as the wind mixed things up, just when it seemed like it was going to get nice and calm.  Looks like it’ll blow the next couple days and of course get nice the day I go out of town!  Oh well hopefully it’ll be nice when I get back.  0 for 0

Got out on a two boat trip today along with Capt. Mike Bassett.  Tarpon was on the agenda and I had a good bit of bait from yesterday still.  We found some tarpon in one of the backcountry channels and had caught the tide change.  After 20 minutes it was coming in OK, tarpon were rolling frequently.  We couldn’t get them to bite though, made a couple little moves but no luck.  The sharks were active and we got some bonnet heads and a big lemon shark.  We then ran further back and had to look around a little, but saw a few signs of them busting and splashing.  Again had to make a couple moves, had fish literally jumping behind the boat, and finally got one to eat!  Landed a nice 50 lb fish and then jumped off another one about 30 lbs.  We also got some big sharks including a couple hammerheads, and had a triple tail eat our tarpon bait that we caught as well.  We hit the channels on the way home again, and caught plenty of blacktips and then the last bait out we got a 90 lb tarpon to finish the day!  All in all a great day, have the same crew tomorrow we are going to tarpon fish some and then mix it up with snook hopefully at the end of the day!  2 for 3

Capt. Rick Stanczyk