May 2018

Got out today with Jim and Bob for a half day of tarpon fishing in Islamorada.  The weather looked like it may be an issue but the morning would not be a problem to get in.  We caught some bait early on and headed out.  Found a load of fish at one of the bridges.  We had to move around a bit but there was a short window where they were active.  Quite a few cheap shots and misses but Jim hooked up a nice 65 lb fish.  Most the boats there probably 6 or so hooked up in that window.  We had to chase him through the bridge and cut a few fishermens lines that were fishing from the bridge, always hate the weekend when we must fish around town there, but luckily we got the fish!  After that we set back up and had a fish up chasing a mullet immediately, but he didn’t eat and then the tide slowed and it seemed like things just turned off.  We tried at another bridge and saw some fish but no love, and then tried up near home for the last 45 minutes and saw a bunch of fish there too but no action out of them either.  Glad we were where we needed to be when the gettin’ was good!  Full day tomorrow I’ll be running out into the backcountry as long as the weather allows it, rain is in the forecast for sure but today really didn’t end up being too bad even though it was suppose to.  Can never trust the weather man!  1 for 1

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

Gave the tarpon a break yesterday but fished for them some today.  I had John and Jan two repeat clients from last year, who had me yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  We caught some pilchards to start our day and had some other bait leftover from yesterday.  We tried for some snook and smaller tarpon around a few islands but no luck with that to start the day.  We found a few medium size tarpon and sharks in one of the channels, had a couple bites out of the tarpon but they didn’t stay buttoned unfortunately.  We then ran and tried another channel, and found a good number of fish pushing in with the hard incoming tide.  We set up and caught a big ray, then a blacktip, then finally got a nice 85 lb tarpon!  After that we caught a few snook around one of the islands and called it a day.  Nice to see some tarpon in a couple different backcountry spots, hopefully they will be filling in for the summer now and fishing will get a little more consistent back there.  1 for 3

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

Day 2 with Ronald we were after tarpon again.  Yesterday we struck out we had one shot all day and we missed it unfortunately.  Today we left early and I obtained some bait yesterday afternoon, but we also came across a good school of bait on the way out and made some throws on that as well.  We ran for the deep ‘glades hoping for glory, but we got there after almost a two hour run and… nothing!  Did not see the schools of tarpon that were there a couple days ago.  We looked around hard, fished a bit, but no love.  We had to backtrack then and I was feeling the pressure.  But we got lucky and found a load of fish in one of the canals!  Usually these guys are fairly hard to get to bite, but there were just sooo many that I figured we’d just put the time in and see what happened.  Plus we didn’t see many anywhere else yesterday in the backcountry.  Not much action at first with the last of the incoming tide.  But we moved around and found a big school in another area.  I was almost about to start trying to catch some smaller baitfish that may of worked better for them, but they weren’t catchable yet, so we waited.  Once the tide started falling we got bit!  We got one to the boat that didn’t stay on for pictures, then missed another.  Then we caught one that was good for pictures!  Not huge guys but both 20-30 lbers.  We then went to another area and got another 20 lber, and had one eat a live mullet but didn’t get the hooks in him.  Anyways what a great flurry of action and awesome landing three tarpon after a couple days where fishing was very tough!  3 for 5

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