7/1/18 July Tarpon Fishing in Islamorada

Got out for a full day today with tarpon on the list.  We headed out early and looked around in a couple of the spots where I had seen fish yesterday.  Yesterday of course things had gotten tough after being so good for a stretch.  South wind had kicked up and coming off the full moon and many of the fish had just split.  Anyways we did not see much in the first couple stops, caught a few sharks.  We then tried a spot where we didn’t see much at all.  But after 30 minutes or so and a few sharks, we hooked a nice 75 lb tarpon!  Great fight and jumps, quite the acrobat.  We got her boatside but she darted under the boat and cut us off before we could get good pictures, but a legal catch none the less on the leader.  After that we saw a few more fish at the channel mouth where a few guys were fly fishing.  We tried to sneak in as politely as possible, and were able to but we did not get a bite and then we left.  We mixed it up after that catching a few snapper and trout.  We then caught some pilchards and caught a nice snook and missed a couple more.  Then we hit a gulf spot and got some nice trout, jacks, a few small cobias, and saw a ton of permit but unfortunately we didn’t have any live bait for them!  Tried throwing some artificials which they looked at but didn’t bite.  Anyways that was awesome to see and I’m definitely keeping a handful of crabs in the live well now again if we happen across the bad boys.  1 for 1

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

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