Got out with Mark and his sons Tyler and Steven today and we gave the tarpon a shot. It was pretty good a few days ago before xmas as we had a warm streak. Though last night a mild front came through and the temperatures dipped into the high 60s again… not too much of a change really but even a little bit can turn this fickle fishery (this time of year) off in a hurry. We had a northerly wind in the morning, and the water temperatures did drop from the mid 70s to about 71. We tried the tarpon early on and we did see a lot of fish, so they didn’t go anywhere. But we had a weak tide and it took a while to turn. Not much action to start with but after an hour or so the tide did start to move finally. A few sharks, and we made 3 moves trying to get on hungry tarpon. They really were all around us we saw a lot of fish rolling, busting, jumping, and marking them on the bottom. But just wouldn’t bite! The sharks did bite a little at least though. We gave up after a couple hours and caught some mackerels in the gulf along with some tripletails. We decided to try again in the afternoon as things warmed up slightly and the wind went more easterly. I really thought they would bite a little bit then. Though no luck the tarpon were still thick in the area, we must’ve seen hundreds of them. But just not interested in eating any bait at least. Plenty more blacktip sharks though and we called it a day. Maybe tomorrow they will turn back on though we do have another front coming I think by the weekend, so we might get a couple more days of activity and that will likely shut it down. 0 for 0
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
