Got out for a full day today with long time customers Bill and Elaine. We decided to mix it up and keep things simple as I told them the last couple days had been a little slow. We caught some pilchards early on and had some live shrimp and headed out. We found a few local islamorada snook first thing and Elaine caught a nice 8 lber on her own cast! Great start to the day. We were going to hit the bayside for some mackerel but had a report that it was slow there, so we ventured around some local islands for mangrove snapper. We found some big snappers which was great but were also rewarded with more. We found a good school of little tarpon and managed to catch a couple and miss a couple more. We also got another snook and a redfish. A welcome surprise we normally don’t see those fish in these areas, but since IRMA weird things like that have happened. After that we headed into the gulf to mackerel fish and that was good action. Not a ton of mackerel but we probably caught 8 or so, but plenty of blue runners and some big snappers out there too. We tried some spots in the backcountry for snook and redfish but no luck back there, it was still a little muddy looking I thought. We tried for big tarpon back their briefly and again locally near home but no luck. I did not see the big school of tarpon like we saw yesterday near home, but I’m sure there are some around with as warm as it is. Off tomorrow for boat service, then available Wednesday if anyone wants to go. I’ll be fishing Thursday for sure hopefully the bite stays like it was today, the winds will be swinging more easterly as opposed to southeasterly which can make a big difference.
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
