Fantastic day with Jen, Ryan, Brody, and Hailey! We did the mixed bag routine, as I told them tarpon had been hit or miss lately. Baits been on the tougher side, and the tarpon themselves are sparse in the backcocintry and the ones around the bridges are not feeding as actively during the day so it can make for a long trip. The nice thing out back is we have a lot of Plan Bs like we resorted to today. Saw a couple tarpon early but hard to line up on and we never really got in them good. We got a few sharks though and maybe had one tarpon zip us but not sure. After that we went and fished our light gear. We caught a few redfish and ladyfish drifting de shorelines. We then fished another area as the tide came in which was very good. We worked the area hard, and kept moving and it kept producing fish for us. We probably caught a good dozen snook and a dozen reds as well in there. Several nicer size reds too and some decent snook. Nice as we kept trolling and moving and kept us interested. On the way home we stopped and Jen got a monster snook which was an awesome catch! Last fish of the day was a permit for Dad, quite a way to end it. It was a blast! May be more focused on tarpon tomorrow hopefully we can find a few happy ones, but will have plan B in the back pocket.
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
