Well just had a 3 day fishing trip with Rob and his buddies Carl and Rick. They were really wanting tarpon so we focused heavily on that. Bait has been a little tough to get (the bait I like anyways – mullet!). But I was able to get a good load of them the afternoon before we fished the first day. Day 1 we had great tarpon action and found a good load of fish in a usual summer time haunt. I think we hooked 7 or 8 fish, though unfortunately most of them came unbuttoned. But we did land two and got one up for a picture with Rob. Later on we blasted out to the gulf of mexico and checked a wreck, and found a good school of permit! I don’t do a ton of this fishing, but when the conditions are right it can be fun in the summer time. We caught 1 for Rick, and hooked several more but we either broke them off, had one get eaten by shark, or pulled the hooks on them. But good action none the less.
Day 2 we just tarpon fished all day. It was much tougher we did not find the big massive school of fish that was there the day before. Just goes to show you things can change day to day, even when conditions are relatively the same. After some hard looking we found a handful of tarpon and jumped a couple off just couldn’t keep them on there. We spent the rest of the day hunting for tarpon and found a handful after a few stops but they didn’t really respond. But we did catch a couple of cool sawfish for Carl as well as some sharks.
Day 3 we were out of mullet and tried for an hour in the morning to catch some early. But they weren’t cooperative. So we tarpon fished with our pinfish. We found a decent group where they were a few days before, not quite as many but some. But they weren’t really responsive to our pinfish though after an hour or so we did get a good bite, either a small tarpon or a monster snook, though after 30 seconds a big bull shark ate it! Heartbreaker! After that we went and searched for permit again which was productive, we caught a double header right off the bat. Then hooked a few more but missed one and pulled the hook on another. After that they were staying kind of deep and skittish, plus it was hard to see them as we had a little bit more breeze and chop on the water.
But overall a fun 3 days with the boys not big numbers of fish but that’s how it goes when you are fishing for trophy fish like tarpon and permit!
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina
