4/25/19 Charter Fishing for Tarpon in April in the Florida Keys

Another fabulous day tarpon fishing in the Florida Keys. Bart was down with his crew who also fished with Capt Bill Bassett. We stuck around local and fished for the silver king. Little slow early on we had very weak tide. But after a bit it started to move. We had one good bite we missed on a drift. Then we got in the right spot a little later and had a lot of activity. Several cheap shots and missed a few more good bites just not staying on the hook. Live mullet fishing can be like that, they are big baits and very acrobatic so often the hooks get twisted around and fouled up. But there is nothing as exciting as watching a big tarpon try to eat them it’s all part of the experience. We drifted out and then hooked a nice fish we landed and were able to jump in the water with for a cool picture. After that things slowed down we had one more blow up on a bait but no strike. We moved areas and fished another bridge. Within 15 minutes or so, we hooked up and got the leader quickly on a big fish, but he then swam under the bridge pilings where we couldn’t get him out. We had one more good bite that jumped and spit the hook after 30 seconds or so. We caught a few nurse sharks and that seemed to be it as the tide was slowing down again. We changed areas again and found a nice school of tarpon again all to ourselves. We jumped one right away and then I thought we’d quickly get another but we had to really work at it. We moved a few times and eventually hooked a nice 100 lb fish! Landed her and got her boatside but she didn’t want to roll over and pulled the hook while leadering the fish. But we got some sick air shots! After that we called it a day. But another great day and good bite I think we had 10 fish pulling drag and got 2 to the boat and technical catch on a 3rd. Lots of fun and love it when they keep ya busy all day. I’m off the next two days but hopefully getting my new boat soon so very exciting about that!  3 for 10

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Share