Got out with Chris and his son Thiago for a full day of tarpon fishing today. I planned on the same routine as I’ve been doing the last couple weeks as it’s been working out well. We headed out early, I thought weather may be an issue as thunderstorms were in the forecast, but luckily everything dissipated as we ran back and didn’t bother us. We got back to the fishing area and where I’d been catching bait and looked around. There had been acres of bait everywhere back there, but today it was a different story! We didn’t see any of the big bait schools, a few little groups but nothing very catchable. We tried and ended up just getting 1 bait. I did have a few left over from yesterday and I could see the tarpon were in the area. So we gave it a shot. Unfortunately the tarpon didn’t respond, we moved a couple times and did catch a few sharks and rays, but no tarpon bites. We looked a bit more for bait and then I decided to make my way back towards home and try some other areas. We did find a bait school a little ways on the way back but they were very timid. We got one decent throw and caught another dozen, but I didn’t think that would be enough to get the job done. So we were planning on trying to catch some ladyfish when I was able to get ahold of my buddy. He said he could give me a couple dozen baits and he had some luck with the tarpon earlier. So we ran over to him and got the bait and then set up in a nearby channel. The tarpon were pouring threw, more then I’ve seen in a long time! The sharks were tough to deal with though and were biting our baits at a furious pace. We got through and caught a tarpon though early on, and then moved around a got another one, so Chris and Thiago had both caught one. My buddy came in and we watched him hook a triple header of tarpon! We ended up jumping a couple more, and then moved over near where he was since he was leaving and Thiago caught another one. Then we moved back there and finished the day with a nice double header of tarpon! Wow what a day and that was all in the last couple hours alone. Some times you get burned taking the long run and going the distance, it’s part of the fishing game. And catching bait is part of it to and sometimes that is easy and sometimes it’s difficult or downright impossible. But personally I’d rather go for the gusto where you stand the chance of having an epic fishing day for fish like tarpon. Luckily today things fell into place where we had something to fall back on to, which sometimes isn’t the case. But I think I’ll be sticking to some of these closer areas for now as more fish seemed to have moved in and it seems to be stabilizing. Or if I decide to make that long run to at least have a little more bait stashed away. Of course that bait may show back up when the west wind dies as it was still a bit out of the west today which often makes funky things like that happen. Back at it tomorrow. 5 for 8
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
