February 2018

Got out with Charlie Ruoff today, return customer from last year of mine.  We had a 3/4 day scheduled.  The winds were cranking pretty good, didn’t seem like it when we left the dock but as soon as we got out on open water you could feel it.  Tried to catch a little fresh bait but not much luck with that, though we had plenty of leftover from the previous day.  Charlie wanted to mix it up and catch some light tackle stuff, and then give it a shot for a tarpon.  We hit the mackerel grounds first and that was very productive, however it took time getting their and back as it was so windy and rough.  We caught 18 or so mackerels.  With our allotted time I didn’t think we could get to where I’d been tarpon fishing as of late, as with the high winds we would’ve had to run way out of our way to make the ride comfortable to get there, and it just wouldn’t leave us with feasible fishing time on a shorter 3/4 day.  Also last time it blew crazy it wasn’t really great fishing back there anyhow so still a gamble.  So we opted to fish locally near home where there had been a few tarpon around though I’ve yet to catch any there (though I’ve only tried one other time).  They didn’t want to cooperate for us though, we had a couple mystery bites I think were sharks, one cut us off and one ran for a bit and got wrapped around a buoy or something and broke.  We did mark a few tarpon on the sonar so there were some around, but just not wanting to play.  Anyways back to full day schedule for the rest of the week.  I know one person caught a nice tarpon in the back today on their full day trip so will likely give it a try again back there, I think it’s part of the agenda tomorrow.  0 for 0

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

Got out for a full day again with the Kurt Butcher group, same group of guys from yesterday but different anglers for me today.  I had Jay and Dustin out for the day.  It was Jay’s dream to catch a tarpon and I told him we’d have a decent shot today being as there had been fish around and we had decent conditions.  The winds had kicked up somewhat from yesterday but not blowing like crazy, a steady 15 mph or so.  We caught bait early to start the day but had some weather in the backcountry so we didn’t run back there right away.  We fished locally for little stuff and had good action with that.  We looked around the bridges for tarpon but didn’t see a whole lot of activity.  The rains cleared so we ran out back.  I fished a different channel I hadn’t fished yet this year, though my buddy said there had been some good tarpon there.  Well we had some company a couple other boats were there, but no matter.  We found fish right away and set up… No bites early on, a few sharks including a big bull, but could see fish rolling and swimming by.  The tide was starting to slack up and soon started to come in.  We moved around a bit and soon after caught a cobia.  Then we caught a big sting ray.  We hooked what I thought was another ray later on, and at the same time Jay put his rod down and had a tarpon grab his bait real quick but spit the hook!  Funny you can fish for hours like that and as soon as you set the rod down, that is when that tarpon comes!  Anyways was a little bummed about that, but then all of a sudden dustins ray jumped and turned out to really be a tarpon that just wasn’t moving or fighting much!  That quickly turned my attitude around and we caught the fish and got some good pics.  Later on Jay was rewarded with a tarpon of his own too a nice 90 lber that we fought for a good 45 minutes.  He didn’t want to cooperate for pictures though we finally turned him and had him laid out but unfortunately he broke off while Jay had the leader wrapped around his hands.  But Dustin got some good video for him and they both were stuper stoked to each catch a tarpon and other things.  Back at it tomorrow looks like the winds are suppose to kick up more, and Tuesday it’s really going to blow.  Will likely make fishing a little tough but hopefully we can find something that wants to feed.  2 for 3

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

Got out with Butch and Cody today for a full day of fishing.  Part of a larger group that had several boats out of Bud n Marys.  We tarpon fished most of the day and they were game with that – anything beats being at work!  We caught some fresh mullet and headed out to the fishing grounds.  We tried where we fished the last few days and there were fish there.  We had a bite within 20 seconds of putting our first bait out, a big 100 lber for Cody!  Good fight and we had her on the leader several times but snapped off before we could get the boat side picture.  I thought the tarpon might be chewing a little bit seeing as how quickly we got a bite, but we fished hard for the next hour or two and never had another tarpon bite there.  We did get a nice bull shark for Butch though.  The tide started to die so we decided to run further back where I hadn’t been in a while though had seen some tarpon a couple weeks ago the last flat clam day we had.  We didn’t see much at first, and anchored randomly and caught a big lemon shark and a sting ray.  I was about to give up on the area, but decided to take a lap around and look.  We saw one little bust that I thought may be a tarpon and decided to fish the area.  It was near where we saw the tarpon a couple weeks ago, and I saw something float by with its fins up high.  We put a live bait out and sure enough a tarpon grabbed it!  We missed him but then caught one on our other rod, a nice 65 lber.  We moved around a bit, and then Butch had another bite he missed, and then 30 seconds or so before I was about to say reel ’em up, Butch hooked and landed a 40 lber!  Anyways a great day 3 tarpon in February is pretty good fishing!  Looks like the winds are going to kick up again so might slow the bite down a little more.  But I’ve already caught more fish this February then I have in any other February in the last several years.  May be a very early start to our season!  3 for 5

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