Got out with Chris and Jeff today for a 3/4 day of tarpon fishing in Islamorada. Storms were brewin’ and we had a very stiff southeast breeze of about 20 mph, much more then the forecasted 12 mph. We were able to sneak out and avoided getting soaked for the most part, staying in between two massive thunderclouds. We got into the bait area and netted up plenty of bait and headed out where we had found tarpon the last few days. Fish were there we set up and bounced around a couple times before getting into ’em. We saw a few roll and plenty of fish floating by on the electronics. However… no bite! We got some sharks plenty of blacktips and a couple nurses. I was surprised the tarpon weren’t responding. We moved a little bit and realigned without success. After 40 minutes or so then a squall blew up nearby and it started howling 35 mph for about 30 minutes. This seemed to blow the tarpon out we didn’t see much with our eyes or on the machine. We stuck it out and things did lay down and got a little nicer getting back around 15 mph, but more southerly wind which I never like but really didn’t look too bad. I thought things would chirp up but no such luck, we looked around hard in the channel and decided to move to another area where I know some fish had been as well. We got in there and it looked right, we saw a fish jump when we stopped and a few roll. We set up and still no bites, made a move again and still no luck. Frustrating. We moved up the channel and had a few roll right in front of us and saw a few more, I set up thinking this would be it. We sat for about 25 minutes and finally Chris hooked up! Unfortunately the fish didn’t stay buttoned though, no angler error he was good about keeping the tip down and light pressure, but unfortunately the hook just pulled. We caught a few more sharks and made one more move giving it an extra 30 minutes or so to try to put the boys on ’em cause I also hate when I don’t catch them. But no luck. We even slow rode out the channel looking all around because the wind did lay down more now and the storms had passed for the most part in that area, but didn’t see much. So we headed on home with some foul weather near Islamorada it really wasn’t pretty but we got home safe thankfully. Oh well we gave it a very hard effort 110% , extra time, etc… but sometimes you can’t make it happen. Funny how the fishing can go from so good yesterday to so tough today but that’s fishing. Anyways I am out of town for a week now I think it’ll be a nice time to be away as we have slightly windy conditions for the next week, not that it will be horrible for tarpon fishing but not the slick calm summer days we dream of. Hopefully things will calm down and the stormy weather will be over with by the time I get back! 0 for 1
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
