May 2019

Nice day with return customer Dirc and his son Luke. Weather slicked out and it was nice and overcast a good part of the day. No rain got us either though it poured overnight. We got on the tarpon early, finding some smaller size guys. Dirc caught a couple, and we got several sharks too. The tide quit on us and we moved around, but nothing but sharks after that. We made a move and checked out some other areas. Didn’t see many signs of tarpon, so we tried some redfish holes. The reds were biting, we caught 15 or so in a couple spots. Went back and searched for more tarpon. Found a big wad of them, and Luke ended up catching a couple. Then we got bum rushed, missing 4 or 5 more tarpon, but dirc finally landed 1 more. We also missed a double header! Great end to the day, the law of averages definitely caught up with us though! Nice to have a banner day as yesterday we struggled a bit fishing locally with the southwest wind. I had Marc and his wife Britta… we hooked one tarpon we lost in the bridge on a half day and that was it. Possibly had another bite or two but not really sure as to what they were.  But today was much better thankfully!  0 for 1 and 5 for 9

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

Back after the tarpon today again.  Conditions and fishing have gotten a little tougher, we had it pretty easy for a long time but starting to get that mid season time when things get hard sometimes.  Winds are not very favorable especially for the backcountry, wanting to stay more south/southwesterly, but that shouldn’t last long looks by the weekend should go back predominately east.  Bait seems to have really dried up hard to find many mullet currently.  Everything I think has gone out to spawn but hopefully they’ll be back in a day or two.  There are some around but not nearly as easy as it had been.  We caught a few early in the morning and then some more on our way out to the tarpon areas in the backcountry.  We saw a few tarpon early to start, got set up and after a little bit we hooked one.  Herman landed a nice 40 lber we got to the boat for pictures.  We had another bite a little later that we missed unfortunatley and jumped off.  After that we got a few sharks.  The tarpon seemed to had shut off so we checked a few other areas.  Didn’t see a whole lot, we gave it a shot in one area for a while and did catch a few more blacktips and a nice little hammerhead.  We switched gears after that and found a good school of redfish, had fun with them though sharks got in there and got a couple of ’em.  We then decided to run and try some channels near home for tarpon again, saw one roll as we approached and set up.  Didn’t get a bite but we did catch a big old sting ray.  Called it a day after that.  Back after them for the next few days hopefully we can keep on the fish!  1 for 2

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

Glenn and Karen had a great time with me yesterday! We focused on tarpon early and had some good luck. Glenn jumped a fish off first thing, then a little later got a nice smaller 40 lber to the boat. After that Karen was up. She landed two 50 lb and 65 lb fish. We also got a tripletail that floated by us. After that the tide slowed down and we switched gears. Found a good school of redfish to keep us busy the next hour. Had a big lemon shark get after them though, but we were able to lock our drags down and keep any more reds from his mouth. We tried one last area for snook before heading home, no luck there but we did get another redfish and a few catfish. Fishing feels like it’s getting a little tougher, bait has gotten a bit more difficult we will likely have to spend some time on that today. But overall still great fishing!  3 for 4

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