9/9/16 September Tarpon Fishing in Islamorada

We got out on the water today after being on vacation then off the last several days.  The wind was kickin’ a bit this morning out of the north and was a little chilly so wasn’t sure how great tarpon fishing would be.  Anyways we caught bait easily it was nice to see so many mullet around that were very easy to catch.  We found some tarpon in the first channel we stopped in and caught a shark and then a tarpon soon after!  Though they quit biting after that we caught several more sharks.  I had gotten a new bottom machine installed on my boat while away on vacation so was neat to play with that – the side scan sonar is very cool and useful we were marking tarpon with it in the channel.  Anyways after that we took a ride and looked up the beach to see if we saw any tarpon busting or jumping.  Didn’t see a whole lot, tried a couple areas and only more sharks bit.  We casted artificials for a little bit and caught a snook and missed another one, then saw a tarpon jump a ways away.  I used the new sonar when we ran nearby to the jump and were able to locate tarpon swimming around and set up.  We ended up catching a couple more tarpon and jumped one more!  Nice to have some new toys come in to be useful, we may have caught those fish without it but it definitely gave me some confidence to see them swimming by on the screen when we put our baits out.  The winds had kicked up even more for the ride home out of the east and we had a bit of a rough ride for a while, but once we got in the shallows it wasn’t bad.  Anyways a great day overall.  I’m fishing Sunday and then don’t have much until next weekend if anyone wants to go fishing.  3 for 4

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

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