Got out with Larry, Jay, Rex, and Trip today. Larry had wanted to try to catch a tarpon, but we also wanted to get some action for the boys Rex and Trip. We hit the tarpon grounds first. Had some leftover bait from yesterday. A big mess of fish back there, same ones I’m sure that pushed in yesterday. They were jumping and flopping all over. Not biting real great though. We put in a good hour and made several moves, a few shark bites and that was it. But finally we got in the right spot and jumped a nice tarpon off! Then about 5 minutes later, hooked another that stayed on. Larry fought him well and we got him to the leader next to the boat, but unfortunately he threw the hook before we could get him laid up for pictures. Anyways a technical release. After that we ended up trying for some mackerels out in the gulf but didn’t have much luck with that. It was pretty windy so took a while to travel, but we tried again for tarpon after that and got some big sharks and a sawfish that we didn’t get a good look at because we couldn’t budge him. But we finished the day off with redfish catching about 40 or so. All in all not a bad day, and always good to get a tarpon! The tarpon fishing still isn’t red hot though there are plenty of fish around, I think once it calms down and the water warms up a few more degrees, it should go off. And in all honesty, it’s probably better for our normal season fishing that it doesn’t get too good too early. 1 for 2
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
