Well we had a big tarpon the other day in the key largo backcountry! It was a fairly calm day after it’d been flat calm the couple before that. The waters warmed up nicely and a few tarpon showed up in the local channels. We had plenty of mackerel action in the morning, and then did the big stuff later. My angler Jim landed a big 85 lb tarpon, plenty of blacktip sharks, and jumped off one other tarpon! Wow that is great for January. Today we had 35 mph easterly winds it was ripping! I got out with Bo and into the backcountry. The ride really wasn’t all that bad, that is the nice thing about a fishing charter in Key Largo, there is so much protected water we can get out in anything really. Fishing was slow to start but we picked away with a few black drum and trout. But the last hour of the day we got into a killer snook bite! I think Bo landed at least two dozen snook. Mostly little guys but a handful in the 4 to 6 lb range that were very fun. He also had a couple tarpon bites but unfortunatley both of them came unbuttoned. Wow just a great week of fishing for me this last one… to start with the two days of monster snook and drums, then a big tarpon, and then today with big numbers of snook even with it blowing 35 mph. Sometimes you just can’t do anything wrong! Well I’m going out of town for a week now, better quit while I’m ahead haha! Off to Jackson hole to go skiing for a week. I hope the fish are biting as well when I get back.
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
