Got out with Tony and Sam today for a full day trip. A cold front started to come in yesterday and today it was blowing hard north this morning. But the temperatures didn’t really cool down yet, that will be tonight. So the water was warm and I figured we would have a shot at getting a tarpon. With all the wind and how tough the fishing has been out in the backcountry for them, we opted to stay close to home. We got on a good tarpon bite early, and had 4 fish bite but only kept one of them on. Tony released his first tarpon and biggest fish ever, a 65 lber! Nice job! After that we were out of bait so we went to catch some more which was fairly easy. We then hit the patch reefs and caught a few various snapper and some hogfish. Then we tried around the bridges for tarpon. Saw a bunch but the tide was just starting out, so the water was clear and the fish were staying under the bridge. Being a saturday there were about 30 people fishing from the bridge so it got frustrating real quick. We did see a big hammerhead with a bunch of barracuda following him which was cool. We ran back and tried our morning tarpon spot again. Saw a fish roll and we set up. No more tarpon for us but Sam got a big 300 lb bull shark! Really cool fish and crazy to see them so close to home like that. I had heard reports of them being caught the last few days. After that we called it a day. Tonight the temps will drop some and that might slow the tarpon down a little bit, plus Thursday is another reinforcing cold front. But it’ll warm back up at some point and at least give the tarpon a little break they’ve had a very early start this year. 1 for 4
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
