7/28/11 Baby hammerhead, tarpon, big trout and snaps!

Well it's not all about lobster mini season this week!  Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished a full day in the backcountry today on 7/28/11 and had a wonderful time.  The wind was howling almost 20 knots most the day - very unusual for July!  Though it kept the heat & sweat down for the most part which was a welcome change.  With thousands of people in the water snorkeling and diving looking for those caribbean crawlers, we ran way in the backcountry and only saw one other boat the whole day back there!  Fishing was fantastic early, we caught several large trout on shrimp and artificials.  We also caught some jumbo mangrove snappers!  The ladyfish were chomping too and we saved several of those for bait.  We set up in one of the channels for some bigger stuff, and the bite was slow to come but produced nicely.  We caught a 75 lb tarpon after our first hour.  Then a 60 lb lemon shark, followed by a 40 lb hammerhead, and finally a small 30 lb blacktip!  Not too shabby for the conditions and time of year.  We tried around one of the islands at the end of the day for a few reds but we didn't find any. However a few days ago, Capt. Vinnie Biondeletti took his son Ryan out and did manage to wrangle up a few sight fishing in the everglades!