July 2013

Well fished Mark the last couple days.  Yesterday was a struggle bait was very very tough we managed only a handful of mullet in the morning after over an hour, we ran and fished them in one of the channels with the last 30 minutes of falling tide around flamingo.  Had one likely tarpon pick up and drop bait, and had a lemon shark to the boat.  Then tide quit and sun rose and we were out of fresh baits.  So looked for more mullet as the tide rose on the flats but there were very spooky.  We tried a few spots for trout and ladyfish, no ladyfish and caught a handful of trout.  Found another mullet mud on the way home and caught a half dozen, then tried fishing around islamorada.  Had one blacktip and that was about all she wrote.  Today was a different story bait was still not easy but we made out already, got about 10 in the morning and started fishing by 8:30.  Had one shark on and saw some tarpon but no bites.  Decided to try around a few islands which worked out nice caught several snook and snapper, then found some more mullet and caught another 10 and tried some other channels closer to the gulf.  We caught 2 out of 3 tarpon one nice big 90 lb fish, plus a hammerhead shark and some blacktips.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903
rick@islamoradatarpon.com

Well had a half day today.  Made the run back to flamingo which we don’t usually do on a half day, but I already had bait and fish were there yesterday so we went for it.  Caught the last of the falling tide.  Had a couple shark bites we missed/bit us off, and then a nice 80 lb tarpon slammed a bait.  Nice aerial show and some greyhounding action.   A 14 year old and his brother took turns on him and landed the beast.  We went back to the spot and tide was now coming in, caught a couple lemon sharks and a blacktip, and had another bite we missed and that was the end of the morning.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903
rick@islamoradatarpon.com

Well after a nice break from Islamorada we got back in the tarpon game today.  Today we caught 1 tarpon early on, several blacktip sharks and a couple lemon sharks, and some smaller stuff.  Mullet were easy in the backcountry, though lots of rain/thunder around.  We stayed out of the bad stuff for the most part which was nice.  Many of the backcountry tarpon seem to have split I didn’t fish yesterday but did the couple days before that.  One day we fished 4 different spots and never saw a tarpon, though caught plenty of other stuff.  The day after we had lots of rain again but managed to catch some snappers for dinner, and did hook a couple tarpon near home though we lost them before heading in on our half day trip.  That day we had one eat a live crab that we casted too which was pretty cool to watch.  Anyways looks like I got fairly booked up for the rest of the month, though may have a day or two available as well as possible evenings here and there.  If you don’t mind getting sprinkled on, let’s go fishing!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903
rick@islamoradatarpon.com