Got out with the Kurt Butcher group again today whom I fished over this past weekend. I had Art and Mojo today. Mojo wasn’t a serious fishermen so he let Art decide what to do, and Art wanted a tarpon! So we headed out and caught some bait to start. I just got new cast net which worked really well for our bait fish so I was excited about that, just easier to throw and dump the bait so it’s much quicker and easier. The winds were cranking so it was a good test. We headed to the backcountry and found some fish early on. It was very muddy though with the hard winds, but we had good tide falling the whole time. No bites to start but we had fish rolling in between our baits. I was very surprised we never had a single shark bite either. After about 1.5 hours though Mojo jumped a smaller 30 lb tarpon! He sucked the bait in and spit it as he jumped though, never even getting the hook I don’t think. After that we didn’t see many tarpon and decided to make a move. I tried another channel where there had been some fish and we set up. Didn’t see much but after 20 or 30 minutes, Art had his shot and hooked a nice 65 lb tarpon! We fought him and got some good jumps and a nice fight, and landed the fish. He cooperated well for pictures and the boys were thrilled. After that it was about 11:30 and the guys had wanted to head in a little early. So we did that. Not bad got a tarpon for Art on a day where it wasn’t easy! Back at it tomorrow hopefully they’ll cooperate some more. Looks like the winds are suppose to subside a little by the weekend, but go in more of a southerly direction which may not be all that great but hopefully it’ll at least calm down some. 1 for 2
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
