May 2019

Got out with Carl and his wife today visiting from across the pond!  We decided to go the mixed bag route again, as I told them tarpon had been a little more hit and miss lately so its been a better bet often going in the everglades where there are several other options nearby.  We tried tarpon early, saw a handful but not bites.  Did get a few big nurse sharks though.  After that we moved and found a group of tarpon out in the middle of nowhere.  They weren’t showing much but with some good old school captain knowledge, I saw the signs I was looking for.  We got in a big pack of them and caught several sharks right away, but after that we finally hooked up a nice 25 lb tarpon that we landed.  We jumped one more too and then they were gone!  We decided to try some wrecks a little further out in the gulf.  It was good we got a big snook, a cobia, big jack crevelle, and missed a few other fish.  We went inshore and smacked up a bunch of redfish and a small snook after that.  Then hit the wrecks again on the tide change and caught a nice permit and 3 more cobia!  Banner day!  1 for 2

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

Got out today with Kevin and Suzanne visiting from Texas.  They were up for doing more of a mixed bag day, so we weren’t all in on tarpon.  But we did give it a shot for part of the day.  Tried early first thing where we had caught a few fish last week.  There were a handful there today, but not what I saw the last time I was there.  We did get a few fish rolling near our baits, but no takes.  After 45 minutes or so, we decided to move on.  Looked elsewhere and saw a handful of fish but not much so we went and did other stuff.  Redfish fishing was pretty good and we caught a good handful of nice snook as well.  Tried again before leaving for some tarpon in another area.  Saw quite a few little guys, but no action out of ’em.  Sounds like the local bridge fishing has been pretty hit or miss, so I’ve often been opting to still going in the backcountry as there many other options back there if the tarpon don’t cooperate.  But the wind should be calming slightly the next several days and maybe things will pick up again.  0 for 0

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

Windy day but a good one with Don and Vicki. Don wanted a tarpon so we went after that first. We were lucky and got one right off the bat, a nice 70 lber. Aftwards we got a few sharks, and we decided to keep moving and try some other things. Got into a few snook, Vicki landed a real nice one. But the sharks were bad we lost a few to them, and had to lock our drags down to try and get the fish in quicker so we broke the rest off before the sharks could get them. We switched gears and fished some other areas for reds. Didn’t find a big group of them, but got one nice one along with a few trout and other things. Afterwards we tried a different snook area, Don got a nice one but then again another shark showed up! We lost one to him and hooked a few more but again pulling so hard to keep them from being eaten we didn’t get any more in the boat. Oh well it was still a great day and Don got a slam. Off the next couple days looks like the wind will blow, then getting a little nicer next week hopefully.  1 for 1

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