3/30/11 Night tarpon action!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished Bob and Stephanie down from NJ for a last minute night tarpon trip.  This was my first night tarpon trip this year, so was anxious to get out there for some sunset action!  We fished some of the bridges down the road first, things were fairly slow as far as the tarpon went.  Had one possible bite that we never came tight with.  Caught a couple nurse sharks on the bottom.  We then drifted around the bridge and back towards the bay with mullet on the surface.  We had them get nervous a few times, and came across some small blacktips, which we caught a couple of.  After that it was getting to be close to 7:00, so I ran to a little spot in the bay I like to fish.  We put them out there, and within 3 minutes had a very nervous bait behind the boat.  Something big chased the mullet around, I figured a shark as it wasn't acting very tarpon-ish.  He missed that mullet and then went after the 2nd mullet on the other side, and gulped him down!  The line came tight and Stephanie started reeling fast like I told her too.  He made a sluggish run towards the bow of the boat, and after a couple minutes, made a huge jump - big 100 lb tarpon!  We dropped our anchor and chased him, my angler did a great job of bowing to the fish when he started jumping crazy which he did after we put some  heat on him!  We fought him for about 30 minutes, finally landing him and getting a few shots in the water.  Great fish, and great way to start my night fishing this year!  Back to a full day tomorrow, though have another night Saturday.  Now's the time to book your night tarpon fishing as most guides are getting very busy from now through June with the night tarpon - the fish are here, and Richie is delivering live mullet in the morning and afternoon, so get on down here!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903
rick@seethefloridakeys.net