October 2018

10/26/18 Half Day Tarpon Fishing in October in the Florida Keys

Got out with Brad and Lindsey for a half day.  We fish for snappers around some islands but I told them some small tarpon may be possible here too.  We caught our pilchards and headed out.  Snappers were pretty good, slow to start but got better with the tide change.  Then we got a nice little snook for Brad.  Then a little later, wham!  Tarpon on!  A nice little 10 lber but we got him to the boat for some pictures and released him unharmed.  After that we got a couple redfish to complete a backcountry SLAM – awesome!  Anyways very cool and nice half day.  Looks like we have a little weak cold front coming in tomorrow, it’ll be blowing hard west and then north on sunday as temperatures drop into the low 70s sunday night (lol).  Well it is a change for us as it’s been closer to 80 as a low and 90 during the day.  Fishing should start to change to fall/winter time stuff slowly.  Tarpon are still definitely possible as long as it doesn’t get real cold.  May be a little more hit and miss, but if you put the time in it can pay off.  But a lot of times, going for other things like snook etc… may pay off more and you still have shots at small tarpon while fishing for them.  But I always leave that up to my anglers.  1 for 1

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

10/21/18 October Tarpon Florida Keys Fishing Report

Had Andrew, Jim, and Jay out again for Day 2.  They fished with me Friday and we had a good mixed bag day with snook, redfish, and finished the day with a small tarpon.  Today we focused on bigger tarpon.  Originally the forecast looked great it was suppose to be flat calm, however these weak cold fronts they never know what they’ll do, so it ended up being a little windy not too crazy but a solid 15 mph out of the north mostly.  My buddy gave me some bait yesterday afternoon so I felt confident that we’d have something at least, as the bait for big tarpon has been a little hit and miss as of late.  Of course we had no problem catching it after checking a few spots, but always nice to have that safety net to have a few left overs.  We loaded the bait well and then looked for tarpon.  Luckily for us they were right near where we caught our bait!  We had the last hour of falling tide and boy the water was super muddy from the wind a few days ago, also had a weird yellow tinge maybe algae related.  Tarpon were rolling and splashing around, I thought for sure it’d be red hot.  But we sat and never had a bite on the falling tide.  Waited for the tide to come in and moved around a bit, saw some more tarpon but still no response.  Made one more move and had them rolling there too, nothing!  The sharks did keep us busy though some lemons and blacktips.  It was hard to leave as every time I wanted to, another tarpon would roll right on top of our baits and we’d sit for a bit longer.  Must’ve happened at least a dozen times.  No bites though…. some days they do that, today really didn’t look like it was gonna be one of those days but they just weren’t into it.  We finally left and tried another area.  Saw a few splashed and a tarpon roll.  We set up and had another shark bite, then moved and after that we got lucky.  Jay hooked a big monster 120 lb tarpon that we fought and got on the leader in about 10 minutes!  A few good jumps to put on a show.  We leadered the fish but unfortunately with the tide into the wind, she made one good kick under the boat and cut off before we could get her to lay up for pictures.  So it goes with those big tarpon especially but we had her leader in hand for a legal catch.  We tried another channel after that, looked around hard but never for sure saw any tarpon there.  We blind fished and did catch a few more sharks.  Anyways a hard days work we definitely gave it 110% effort and were in fish most of the day, but sometimes you just can’t make them bite ravenously.  Good to still see such big groups of tarpon around though, it could still be worthwhile as long as the water temps stay in that 80 degree range.  Might have to work at it, but it’s doable.  Anyways I’m off the next couple days, then charters mid week again on Thursday… Another weak cold front coming in Friday, so wind may get funky on us but the calm before the storm could be good fishing!  Wednesday I’m available if anyone wants to go, it looks like it’ll be a nice day!  1 for 1

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

10/19/18 October Florida Keys Tarpon Fishing

Got out with Jay, Jim, and Andrew today for a full day.  Had the last week or so off, welcoming my baby boy Beau into the world!  He was born Tuesday and everyone was healthy and happy thankfully.  Was good to get out on the water after a few sleepless nights, and have some days off again coming up to spend some time with him at home.  We decided to leave later as the winds were cranking and the boys wanted more of a mixed bag trip instead of trying to focus on tarpon all day.  I said it’d probably be a good idea and we’d still have a shot at catching some smaller tarpon.  Anyways fishing was very good, we had a bunch of snook, a few redfish, a few trout, a nice triple tail, a sheepshead, and finished the day with a nice 15 lb juvenile tarpon!  We didn’t really put much effort into targeting them but of course when snook fishing with our live baits, this time of year there are plenty of small tarpon in those same areas so if you fish your baits the right away you can encourage a strike here and there.  Anyways we finally got one at the end of the day, unfortunately we got the fish to the boat but he pulled the hook before we could get a good picture.  I have these guys again on Sunday and it looks like it will be getting slick calm before a minor cold front hits.  So we may decide to focus on the tarpon that day as that is the condition we like.  Will keep everyone posted and if you are wanting to fish give me a shout, still have a couple weeks where tarpon are definitely possible and like I said the snook and other stuff are pretty good now too and you have shots at the smaller ones when doing that too.  1 for 1

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