5/29/12 Night tarpon fishing in Islamorada

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished with his father, Andy Newman, and Bill Reed of the National Hurricane Center last night on 5/29/12 for some night tarpon fishing in Islamorada.  Bill is retiring from the hurricane center this year.  We did some evening fishing as the bite the last several nights seems to have been better at sunset and after dark.  We jumped one fish early down near Channel 2 bridge tarpon fishing right around sunset.  We then drifted further back in the bay, hearing many fish roll and bust around us but no action.  The wind had died out flat making things a little tougher.  We motored up for another drift, and as soon as we put our baits out, we hooked a very nice fish.  I handed Bill the Rod and he started the battle!  It zipped around back and forther quite a bit, and then ran straight at the boat going underneath but we managed to swing the rod around and keep him on.  As we got the fish to the boat and in the light, my suspicions were correct - a nice big permit!  A very nice surprise while fishing for tarpon as we don't catch a whole lot of them while doing this with the larger tackle and crabs that we use!  We then ran back towards home and fished some of the channels close to Bud n' Mary's, and first drift Andy hooked a nice 80 lb tarpon which we landed and then came home!  Capt. Bill Bassett reported getting a couple bites in the normal morning hours 7-11 on crabs and pinfish.  Capt. Jim Willcox also has some tarpon action out in the fishing the gulf of mexico on the flat calm days the last couple of days.