March 2018

Got out with Russell and his son Max for a full day of florida keys tarpon fishing.  Winds slicked out and I knew it was going to be good…  We headed out into the backcountry with a load of bait.  Found a ton of tarpon in the first stop – great sign!  We had falling tide and we set up.  Max had the hot stick he ended up catching three tarpon and jumped another one!  Dad had one bite but he missed it.  We caught a couple sharks as well.  As the tide slowed and the bite died down some, we decided to check another area.  I was interested to look where we had found our fish yesterday afternoon.  We headed there and the tide was just starting to change.  But the tarpon were there!  They weren’t quite as happy as yesterday we had to really put some time in and move around, but we had good shark action with some big blacktips and lemon sharks.  Russell jumped a nice tarpon eventually.  Then after a couple more moves and just about our last bait out, we hooked a big lemon that Max was fighting.  While we fought that, Russell hooked a nice 90 lb tarpon!  He stayed on the hook this time and we landed both fish.  Russell was thrilled to land his first tarpon.  Great fishing and looks like the weather will stay nice throughout most of the week, so I think the next few days will be really good for tarpon.  Back at it tommorrow.  4 for 7

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

Got out with Aaron and Beth today for a full day of tarpon fishing in Islamorada.  We caught a little bit of bait early though had a good amount already.  We made a far run into the ‘glades as I told them we had conditions where that made sense.  With the south wind and all I knew some areas that would be more protected and have clean water so we ran a ways.  We stopped along the way where we had seen some tarpon but no bites there though did get a shark.  Once we got to the next area we had a bunch of sharks to start.  Thought it might of been a bust but eventually saw some tarpon showing and had to move around.  As soon as we reset Beth hooked a nice 90 lb tarpon straight away!  Another boat came in behind us and they also hooked up almost instantaneously!  We both fought our fish and landed them, then went to reset.  But by that time it seemed the big body of fish had already moved on!  It was surprising as there seemed to be a lot of fish there.  We saw a handful more but only had some more shark bites after that.  We ran back towards home and tried another area on the way home.  Did see a few tarpon and set back up and here the fishing got better and better!  We had another 5 tarpon bites here!  Unfortunately they weren’t staying on the hook very good for us, Beth jumped some smaller guys and Aaron had one he jumped off, and then one he technically landed as we got it to the boat on the wind-on leader.  But the fish never jumped and we thought it was a shark so as soon as we got it boat side, it took off and went under the boat and got wrapped around the motor.  When the fish felt all this pressure it finally decided to jump and show that it was a tarpon but unfortunately ended up throwing the hook!  Sometimes those technical releases make leave you wanting more but thats the way she goes sometimes.  We gave it a little extra time and had one more tarpon bite we missed and then a few larger sharks.  Anyways it was great to have such good action throughout the day and I think the tarpon are going to be very good for the next week or so here while the weather is nice.  Back at it tomorrow!  2 for 6

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

Got out with Billy and his son Walter for a full day today.  Tarpon was the desired target and we put in a good effort!  We were hooked up with some bait and went straight to fishing.  Last of the falling tide which was a little different from what we had yesterday, water didn’t look great pretty muddy.  But had some shark action early on and once the tide started to change we saw a couple tarpon.  Though just sharks in the first spot but some nice bulls and blacktips.  We moved a bit and saw a tarpon and then set back up.  After 20 minutes or so Billy hooked one and we landed him nice fish not a huge one but about 50 lbs.  We moved again and then Walter had his turn, roughly the same size fish seems to have been a pack of these medium size ones there today.  But lots of fun!  We landed both fish and then things seemed to slow down.  We ended the day catching a few trout on some artificials which was fun.  Back at it tomorrow looks like the winds will continue to die out and then looks to be 10-15 mph for the foreseeable future!  I’m very excited this should mean game on for tarpon for the next week or so, medium/light winds and no cold weather.  Should be a productive week!  2 for 2

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