February 2018

Got out with Gareth and Claudia visiting from over in South Africa.  Gareth really wanted to try and catch a tarpon.  We dedicated the day to it.  It was a little nasty out, scattered showers in the AM and a hard 20 knot southeast wind.  Bait was easy we loaded the well with fresh bait and headed out into the backcountry.  We found a few tarpon in the first channel we fished, somewhere I hadn’t fished for tarpon yet this year.  No bites out of them but a few sharks and a couple big sting rays.  Not a ton of tarpon but we definitely had a couple roll around us and saw a few more on the sonar.  After the incoming tide quit we moved out to the channel where we had caught one yesterday to catch the start of the falling tide.  Nothing going on here though we never saw a fish and didn’t have any bites.  I then took a gamble and hit some of the open water areas I like to fish as there had been tarpon out there a few times.  It was pretty rough we didn’t see any tarpon showing, but we did have good shark activity out here too with some big blacktips, bull sharks, and toothy grey sharks.  Tough day for the tarpon but looks like the winds will start to subside tomorrow and we may have a very nice week coming up.  Calm and warm should mean a lot more tarpon should show up.  0 for 0

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with John, John, and Joe down from NJ for the day.  The guys really wanted to try to catch tarpon and I told them it’s kind of an all day affair right now to have a shot at one, and they were game.  We caught bait early which was easy enough.  Howling east winds made the bait fishing easier for sure, but not necessarily easier for the tarpon fishing!  We headed out back and tried the channels where we caught them a couple days ago.  Not much early on we had the last of the incoming tide.  After 45 minutes or so though it started falling but we still didn’t see much.  I gave it some more time and looked around but nothing looked promising so we tried another channel.  A couple other boats set up here, nobody doing much of anything.  We gave that an hour and nothing happened so we went back to the first area as I figured maybe with the tide running for a bit now some fish would show up.  As soon as we got there, a boat was there fighting a tarpon so that was a good sign.  Someone I knew, so we pulled into that general area and a couple fish came up and rolled straight away.  We gave it a good 30 minutes but no bite, the other boat did jump another one though.  We had to move around a little and got in front of what seemed to be the body of fish.  After another 30 or 40 minutes,  I was about to move out but then we hooked one!  A nice big 120 lber, Joe landed him in about a 20 minute battle.  I didn’t get any good pictures as we broke her off on the leader, but had it next to the boat sevearl times and the boys got some good video I think.  We moved around a little after that to an area where we had seen a free jumping tarpon, but no more tarpon bites.  We did end up catching a lemon shark and had one other shark bite us off.  So overall slow day but we made the tarpon happen so it was a good one!  1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with the Kurt Butcher group again today whom I fished over this past weekend.  I had Art and Mojo today.  Mojo wasn’t a serious fishermen so he let Art decide what to do, and Art wanted a tarpon!  So we headed out and caught some bait to start.  I just got new cast net which worked really well for our bait fish so I was excited about that, just easier to throw and dump the bait so it’s much quicker and easier.  The winds were cranking so it was a good test.  We headed to the backcountry and found some fish early on.  It was very muddy though with the hard winds, but we had good tide falling the whole time.  No bites to start but we had fish rolling in between our baits.  I was very surprised we never had a single shark bite either.  After about 1.5 hours though Mojo jumped a smaller 30 lb tarpon!  He sucked the bait in and spit it as he jumped though, never even getting the hook I don’t think.  After that we didn’t see many tarpon and decided to make a move.  I tried another channel where there had been some fish and we set up.  Didn’t see much but after 20 or 30 minutes, Art had his shot and hooked a nice 65 lb tarpon!  We fought him and got some good jumps and a nice fight, and landed the fish.  He cooperated well for pictures and the boys were thrilled.  After that it was about 11:30 and the guys had wanted to head in a little early.  So we did that.  Not bad got a tarpon for Art on a day where it wasn’t easy!  Back at it tomorrow hopefully they’ll cooperate some more.  Looks like the winds are suppose to subside a little by the weekend, but go in more of a southerly direction which may not be all that great but hopefully it’ll at least calm down some.  1 for 2

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing