7/26/15 Islamorada Tarpon Fishing Report late July

Well we got rained out yesterday I did get booked but it looked too bad to make the 20-30 mile run into the backcountry so we cancelled.  Today I had the same guys and we made it out but things were still a little nasty.  Lots of weather around and blowing hard west in the morning then swung around south.  Bait was tough I tried two areas and didn’t see much and we finally saw a few on the flat in a mud and were able to get a couple dozen.  Saw a good handful of tarpon busting on edge of the flat of one of the channels and we set up there, though could not get any action out of them.  Literally had fish rolling on top of our baits a half dozen times but they would not eat.  So eventually  I moved into the channel and not much, not even much for sharks.  Finally jumped again further out of the channel mouth and we had a couple bites from tarpon.  Unfortunately they both came unbuttoned right away.  We caught a few more sharks and then ran out of bait.  I caught bait pretty good after that mid day since it was overcast and we tried some other channels but the rain soon chased us back towards home.  It wasn’t too bad there so we fished the last hour close by, but unfortunately no luck there with the tarpon.  Tough day but we worked hard at it and had some shots, but you just don’t always connect.  Tomorrow I’m just snapper fishing for a half day (hopefully) if we can get out.  0 for 2

Capt. Rick Stanczyk