One of those days you dream about today… The wind finally let up yesterday a bit and we’ve had a true taste of fall with a slight north breeze and a slight temperature drop. Water temperatures in many parts of the bay are down to around 80 degrees as opposed to the very hot 85+ degrees of summer. I had the day off but conditions looked so good and we found some quality fish yesterday in a few areas, that I didn’t want to pass it up! My dad and our friend/marina manager Stephen went out for a morning trip. We left early and caught the last trickle of falling tide which didn’t produce much as far as fish went. Stephen missed one good bite, but then nothing but a whole lot of catfish for a little bit. The tarpon put on quite a show though first thing in the morning as the mullet run is in effect, but we didn’t really mess with them as we were looking for snook, redfish, drum, etc… Once the tide turned back in and started moving, the fish turned on. We got into some very nice snook up to 36 inches, nice fat healthy fish! We also got a good handful of quality redfish in the 8 lb range (didn’t get any pics of them). Eventually we also got into a few very large (for here) black drum, one probably being close to 25 lbs! So awesome to see as they are a rarity for us especially over 10 lbs or so, usually we only really get them on the freezing cold days but funny we found one yesterday and got a few today. On the way home we stopped at one more spot and the big jack crevelles tore us up, but we also got a couple small goliath groupers and Stephen got one last big snook to finish the day up. Back at the dock by noon for lunch.
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
