Well back at it today I just had the last week off to welcome my new son Beau into the world! He was born Tuesday and he and mom are both happy and healthy. I had Andrew, Jim, and Jay today and they have me booked Sunday as well. The winds were ripping a little out of the east, and I told the guys we'd probably be best leaving later and catching our pilchards to have the most options for fishing. We black the well out with one toss on the bait so that was nice and easy. We ran out into the backcountry and caught the last few hours of incoming tide. First stop we got a nice big tripletail along the shoreline which was a cool surprise, as well as a nice sheepshead! Second stop we got the snook going a little and Jay caught a nice 10 lb fish. Also a few redfish and some jacks and ladyfish here too. We then ran further back and caught the last bit of tide there. A few more snook around an island, and then one more along a shoreline that we worked pretty hard. Things seemed to slow down a little as the tide got to its peak. But we hung with it and once it started falling we tried another area. We had to try some different baits, but we did get some more snook and redfish fired up here and some nice trout as well. It was a good rally for about 20 minutes then slowed down again. We had a good bit of time left and tried a couple more spots on the way home, getting one more snook in one spot. The last stop though payed off big, we got another five or so snook, and mostly all nice size fish in the 6 to 9 lb range. It was great with our last dozen or so baits too! Andrew even got lucky and the last bait out caught a nice 15 lb tarpon, but he didn't want to cooperate for a picture though. Really good day and I was a little worried it'd be tough with the ripping wind and me not having been out in the last week or so. But great to see. Taking tomorrow off and then have these guys again Sunday. But I do have some days available at the end of the month starting the 26th or so. There are still some big tarpon around but to be honest unless the conditions look really good, it's been more productive going with pilchards like we did today as you get shots at a lot of other fish instead of being all in on tarpon. But I'll definitely point you in the right direction as I want to put you on the fish as best I can! Give me a shout if you want to go!

rick@seethefloridakeys.net
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing