WOW what a day out there today! I had the day off and our friends Andy and Maria Newman wanted to get out along with my father again. I knew conditions were favorable and said let’s give it a whirl absolutely! It was fairly calm and the water still chilly, the possibility for big things was good! We got out into the backcountry and checked a spot. It was game on right away! Maria hooked a big snook that screamed out some drag, and after a hard fought battle we landed it her biggest ever! After that to be honest it’s kind of a blur… but we ended up with a half dozen very large snook and lost a good handful more. My dad had one we almost had and it took one more run straight into the prop and cut us off which was likely the biggest of the day a 20+ lber. But he couldn’t complain too much landing that monster a few days ago. We got a monster redfish 35ish lbs for Andy which was very cool! Some smaller reds that were still very big by florida keys standards as well, maybe another half dozen in total. Also a half dozen 10 to 15 lb black drums. The tide started rolling and then believe it or not, tarpon started to bite! I hooked a nice one that I thought was a snook, it never jumped and then ran me around the bow and once it got forward it jumped and threw the hook! We then missed another, but then we caught a double header Andy and my dad! Then I landed another one before we called it quits. We hit one other spot on the way home and caught a bunch of smaller redfish and smaller snook, and a few trout. But the morning sure spoiled us and we headed on in after getting a few trout for dinner. Truly spectacular we should get some more good fishing after this next front blows though, as long as the wind settles down a little we’ll have to wait and see! Half day for me tomorrow then we just cancelled Sunday as it looks like it’ll be nasty and I need a day off… too much pulling on big fish takes it out of you!
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
