Got out with Aaron and Beth today for a full day of tarpon fishing in Islamorada. We caught a little bit of bait early though had a good amount already. We made a far run into the ‘glades as I told them we had conditions where that made sense. With the south wind and all I knew some areas that would be more protected and have clean water so we ran a ways. We stopped along the way where we had seen some tarpon but no bites there though did get a shark. Once we got to the next area we had a bunch of sharks to start. Thought it might of been a bust but eventually saw some tarpon showing and had to move around. As soon as we reset Beth hooked a nice 90 lb tarpon straight away! Another boat came in behind us and they also hooked up almost instantaneously! We both fought our fish and landed them, then went to reset. But by that time it seemed the big body of fish had already moved on! It was surprising as there seemed to be a lot of fish there. We saw a handful more but only had some more shark bites after that. We ran back towards home and tried another area on the way home. Did see a few tarpon and set back up and here the fishing got better and better! We had another 5 tarpon bites here! Unfortunately they weren’t staying on the hook very good for us, Beth jumped some smaller guys and Aaron had one he jumped off, and then one he technically landed as we got it to the boat on the wind-on leader. But the fish never jumped and we thought it was a shark so as soon as we got it boat side, it took off and went under the boat and got wrapped around the motor. When the fish felt all this pressure it finally decided to jump and show that it was a tarpon but unfortunately ended up throwing the hook! Sometimes those technical releases make leave you wanting more but thats the way she goes sometimes. We gave it a little extra time and had one more tarpon bite we missed and then a few larger sharks. Anyways it was great to have such good action throughout the day and I think the tarpon are going to be very good for the next week or so here while the weather is nice. Back at it tomorrow! 2 for 6
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
