February 2019

Fantastic day with Matt and Emily visiting from Oklahoma! We headed out early and decided to give the tarpons a try since it was pretty good yesterday. Little different condition today with a bit of a northwest breeze, nothing crazy but it was blowing onshore so it was a little rough to start. We didn’t see quite as much activity early on as yesterday, but enough to keep us interested. We caught a couple sharks first thing, then we moved around a bit and soon Matt had a tarpon hooked up! Not a monster but a decent 60 lber that we landed. Soon after that we jumped off a second one. We skirted around again, and the winds started to lay out a bit and it got nice. The tarpon started to show a bit more, and soon Matt had a monster hooked up probably a good 150-170 lbs! We chased after her and Matt fought it well, bowing when she jumped and not pulling to hard when she would run. We got the fish on the leader multiple times, but didn’t seem like she was going to roll over anytime soon, so eventually we just put the wood to her and popped her off. We then gave it one more shot and caught a few more sharks, but after a few moves, we hooked up a third tarpon for Matt and he landed this one properly and a few more nice pictures to be had. We were about to call it quits and were heading to try and catch a few snook and reds, but then we ran into a big old school of tarpon! It was hard to pass up, we got lined up and drifted our baits out and within a minute, jumped another tarpon and then hooked Matt hooked another that he landed! Sometimes it happens quick when you are in the right spot at the right time, and this was it! After that we left them alone. Finished our day catching about 2 dozen redfish. It was a gorgeous day and very lively out there. The 2019 tarpon season is off to a great start!  4 for 6

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

Great day with long time Bud n Mary’s customer and friend Rich Riolo and his friend Kevin with son Blitz. Rich hadn’t had a chance to fish with me but today was the day. I had gotten my boat back had to do a quick lower unit oil change this morning due to bending my prop shaft the other day, but thanks to Aaron at Proptec for getting it straightened out. We were after tarpon and ran into a good group where we found them the other day. We set up and first thing they were biting! We hooked three in quick succession blitz getting a few shots, but they were not good bites the tarpon we’re grabbing the baits and spitting them out quickly while jumping. Hard to get them to stick! We then caught a few sharks, but made a move and then got into see more tarpon. We jumped one more and then Rich got one to stay on. Big fish about 150 lbs I’d guess. He fought him well and we just got her to the leader and popped her off. Kevin got one after that about a 120 lber which we got up for some pictures. After that the tide quit and we went tripletail fishing which was fun, but we didn’t find any big ones. But nobody had caught one before and all three got to experience it casting to there own fish, a lot of fun. After the tide turned we tried for tarpon again, though they weren’t in the feeding mode we made a few moves and caught several more sharks and a couple more tripletails floating by. But all in all a blast I know everyone enjoyed the nice weather and plenty of action that we had! Back at it tomorrow hopefully fishing is just as good! 2 for 6

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

Got out with Scott today for a full day.  We caught bait early, had to look around a little but found ’em eventually.  Loaded up the wells and headed to the backcountry.  We stopped to catch a few redfish and small snook first.  Then hit the tarpon grounds.  Lots of fish jumping around again same area as yesterday.  Today however the winds were cranking hard east.  But it looked like it would be decent fishing.  The tarpon did not want to play today however.  We moved around several times and just couldn’t get a response out of them.  We did catch a few sharks.  After a couple hours, I told Scott we could stick it out, or run a little further back to an area I was pretty sure we could bend the rods out.  He said let’s catch some fish, so we did just that.  Ended the day with a bunch of redfish, a few small snook, some nice sea trout, and a 35 lb goliath grouper on light tackle.  Anyways right now life is nice as days like today when the tarpon don’t respond, often times we have that ace in the back pocket to play.  Not that it’s there every day, but often times it is as the backcountry fishing is still just really good and consistent for the most part.  Back at it tomorrow.  0 for 0

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