March 2014

The tarpon season rolls on.  Today was flat calm and the water had a chance to warm up a few more degrees.  It was 77.5 in the backcountry where I’ve been fishing which is much better than 73.  A few degrees makes a big difference in the attitude of the fish.  We had falling tide all morning where I tarpon fished and we caught bait first thing a little further east where the tide was still coming in.  The mullet were thick as they have been the last several days with that condition.  We went 1 for 4 on tarpon within an hour and a half, also catching a couple hammer heads, black tip sharks, and big nurse sharks.  By 10:00 the bite slowed up and we weren’t seeing near the number of fish rolling which that often happens that time of day.  However we kept at it and we finally had another tarpon on by 11:15 or so.  Good fight and multiple jumps.  So 2 out of 5 tarpon overall.  Both nice fish in the 80-100 lb range.  We are suppose to get another minor cold front next week on wednesday.  We will see what happens, may slow down the tarpon a little bit but I don’t think it will for long.  Overall will probably be a good thing as we generally don’t want the fishing to get too good too early as that often leaves May and June much tougher!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Good fishing today.  We caught a total of 4 out of 6 tarpon.  We went 2 for 3 this morning in the everglades.  Several sharks too.  The tarpon weren’t really happy today we had a slight northwest breeze.  I did my first evening trip tonight.  March night tarpon fishing in islamorada is a good bet!  We saw several fish down by channel 5 though only in one area, not much around 2.  We had half a dozen ‘cheap shots’ where the fish would bust the bait but not eat it, just kind of slap it around.  A fellow guide I called in hooked one next to us and after another 20 minutes we hooked a double header!  One on a live bait and the other on the bottom.  We went after 1 fish and we got the leader on him though he got around a piling and we broke him off.  We were already through the bridge and the other line was still tight.  So we went back through, almost breaking a rod and slamming the bridge in the process but thankfully nothing was broke!  The tarpon was still on the other end through an entirely different span in the bridge – thank god for strong braided line!  We got him to the boat for pictures.  Jumped one other fish off towards the end of the evening back near the marina.  A fun day, all on fresh mullet!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

We ran back into the backcountry everglades this morning for our tarpon fishing.  I was able to get around some islands and catch mullet with the last of the incoming tide.  This often is a good condition and the bait is relatively easy.  We got one good throw before the tide quit and boats raced through, ended up with about 30 baits.  This is why it is very important to be on time for charters – being even 20 minutes late sometimes can turn bait fishing from 1 throw and done in 5 minutes, to 20 throws and spending an hour or more.  This can have repercussions on your entire day of fishing so always better to be early than late!  Anyways we went out to fish some of the gulf channels.  Wind was out of the northwest but light.  The red grass was terrible almost making it unfishable, but we got lucky we hooked a tarpon with the first bait out in a few minutes.  Caught him and then caught a nice hammerhead shark.  A few more blacktip sharks and then finally another big tarpon of 100 lbs.  Went 2 for 2 the the wind kicked up more and everything seemed to shut down.  We tried around town on the way home for 45 minutes, saw half a dozen fish roll but no action out of them.