Got out for a ‘fun trip’ with my dad and our friend, Ron Modra. We caught some pilchards early and headed back to the cape sable area of the everglades, a good 40 mile run where we headed. A few boats were already back there, and unfortunately one was in a spot that I wanted to fish! We made due though and fished another area close by. We didn’t get much to start, but we saw plenty of little tarpon rolling and tried messing with them. Ron and I hooked and landed a double header soon after which was cool! Unfortunatley they both came off by the boat, we then jumped another one in the rod holder, and then later on Ron got one that we netted and got a few pictures of. We usually do not boat tarpon but little guys under 40 inches it is allowed. My dad also got a snook and I landed a nice slot size snook fish of 8 lbs or so. After that things slowed down and we decided to run even further to check out some other areas. We saw a ton of baitfish, small finger mullets, all up and down the coast, but surprisingly not much busting them. We tried a few spots in the creeks up that way, but never had a sniff. I decided to bail as it just didn’t feel right up there, and I’m glad we did as I talked to another guide later who fished there and they said they never caught anything either. We headed back towards where we started, the boat was still sitting in the place I wanted to go so I assume they were catching some good fish. We tried a few spots further back towards the other end of the canal without much luck. Then I finally hit a spot that I’d had some luck at the last few days before. We didn’t get anything for about 15 minutes and I was surprised. We almost called it quits then we hooked a triple header of snook! All nice size fish! We proceeded to catch another 4 or so snook, and got a nice redfish and trout too to complete a backcountry SLAM (snook, redfish, tarpon). Great way to end the day all in all I think we had 10 snook, 1 red, 3 out of 4 tarpon, and a trout. Not massive numbers but it was nice as most the snook were quality size slot fish, I’d rather catch a handful of them then 30 little guys to be honest… especially when it’s just me fishing. We then headed home and called it a day. I’m booked Sunday but am available tomorrow or Monday through Wednesday, then I’m fishing thursday through the weekend again. Give me a shout the hurricane is long past and things are back to normal, and the fishing is GOOD!
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
