July 2017

Got out with David and Stanley today for some tarpon fishing in islamorada.  We left out early and ran into the backcountry.  The winds had kicked up out of the southwest, not honking but a good 10-15 mph.  I was a little worried that might make the fish move around a bit they usually dont like south wind!  We were able to catch some bait on the way and hit the areas where I had found them yesterday.  Luckily they were still there… We had the tide just starting in, and had some action right away.  We jumped the first fish off, actually the hook broke on us oddly that doesn’t happen too often.  After that we proceeded to put on a clinic.  Stanley landed 3 fish, Dave got 1, and he also had another one we got to the leader but unfortunately got tip wrapped and broke off next to the boat… but had the leader so a technical release.  It was game on for a good little 2 hour window.  After that things slowed down a bit, we went and just did some light action fishing and caught some trout and then came home!  Days like today make it look easy but it’s not always like that… makes you appreciate it when it is!  Hopefully the fish will stay put, I heard the other batch of fish had disappeared today with that bad wind direction, so if it goes back east hopefully they’ll come back.  5 for 6

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
@richardstanczyk

Got out with Ken and his wife today for some tarpon fishing in islamorada.  We headed out early and stopped for bait, the bait was nice and easy for a change.  We also didn’t have any rain or storms to chase us around which was very nice too.  Was able to load up and even have some leftovers for the next day or two.  We tried our morning area where the fishing had been decent the most part the last couple weeks.  Saw a couple roll and we moved over to ’em but didn’t have a bite and didn’t see much after that.  We tried moving a bit but no luck.  We then went up inside on of the channels nearby, and saw some fish in there, but still no response.  We made a couple moves again trying to get in front of different fish, but just no love.  I checked one more area out that I hadn’t really been in yet this year, and we some some splashes.  I set up and then noticed some bigger busts on the other side of the channel.  We moved over there, and then start to see a few fish roll and marked them on my machine…  I knew it was game on.  We had a double header bite, but unfortunately Ken’s came off, though his wife caught the other one.  Ladies always seem to have that luck!  After that we jumped another one off in the rod holder, and had another mystery zip that I’m sure was likely a tarpon since we had no shark bites in there.  Ken then caught a couple tarpon, one nice one of about 75 lbs or so, and the other was about 50.  After that the tide quit, we tried to catch a few trout on the way home which was a little slow, but got one and a few ladyfish and a shark.  After that we were all worn out and hot and headed in a few minutes early.  But all in all a great day it took a little work to find ’em, but luckily we kept grinding and had a great day to show for it.  3 for 5

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
@richardstanczyk

Got out with Brandon and Chad today down from Georgia.  Tarpon was the desired species.  It was fairly windy with a north breeze when we got into the backcountry that turned to south/southeast later in the day.  Mullet were hard to come by we had to work hard but were able to put a good catch of bait together.  Rain was chasing us around too.  We tried fishing the area where there’d been some fish early in the morning, saw one jumper.  We set up but the rains came and I decided to just boogey where I had good tarpon action the few days before where there was no rain.  We got out there and saw some tarpon – good sign.  But we weren’t able to get them to respond, we moved several times, got in front of some good schools, but just no bites.  After a while they seemed to disappear too, as I’d been seeing them rolling and splashing a lot every time i’d been out there, so when it went quite I was worried.  We looked further down the mainland, but didn’t see much for tarpon life.  I then tried some other channels that I hadn’t fished the last few weeks since my routines been working.  Though those areas all seemed dead… we fished 3 different channels, and idled through another one, and never saw a tarpon for sure.  We caught a few sharks, and a big sting ray, and that was it.  Anyways we worked hard at it and went through a lot of bait, hopefully it gets a little easier.  I’m off tomorrow, then just a half day on Saturday, should be back to the tarpon grind on Sunday.  0 for 0

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
@richardstanczyk