5/5/18 + 5/6/18 May Islamorada Tarpon Fishing Report

5/5/18 – Got out today with Jesper over from Denmark.  Didn’t know if we’d make it out we got the remenants of an early tropical system that formed out in the atlantic.  Lots of rain early on.  But we made it out and did get a little wet but not too bad then it got real nice.  The tarpon were pretty thick around the bridges early, we caught one pretty much right away on the last trickle of the tide.  But one of those catches where we got him near the boat on our wind-on leader right away, then after we pulled on him for a few minutes he surged and the hook pulled.  So a technical catch but no picture which Jesper really wanted.  After that the tide slowed and took a long time to change, boats got crowded.  We moved around and got one bite on a live bait that we missed and that was about all she wrote.  We tried a few other areas and saw some tarpon, but it got very calm, with clear water and sunny skies and they were just not wanting to feed.  But glad we got him one at least hopefully next time we can get some pictures!  1 for 2

5/6/18 – Today I was with Mark and his son Andrew.  We made a long trek into the everglades.  South wind not cranking but I don’t normally like that direction, and wanted to get away from the crowds being the weekend.  One certain area on a south wind can be good because it is protected back there, and I had good fishing there last week one day.  But it is a bit of a gamble as it’s a long run and if the fish aren’t there you have to run back a good ways for your second move sometimes.  But the guys were willing to try it and it paid off.  We had to look around a bit, but we found a good school of fish.  Lots of little guys showing, we jumped off a couple after a bit that didn’t stick on the hook.  Them Mark got about a 120 lber, big fish!  After that Andrew got an 80 lber.  Then a few sharks and the tarpon seemed to move on after about 10:00.  Sometimes that is an early morning thing and luckily we got there early!  We finished the day catching a snook and tried a few other spots but not much other luck.  2 for 4

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

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