Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Well it’s about what we like to call ‘prime time’ for tarpon fishing here in the Florida Keys! We had some slick calm weather a couple days ago and there were thousands of tarpon in the backcountry and thousands showing up locally around the bridges, channels, and ocean atlantic side… almost everywhere you looked there were tarpon! April is one of the best months to fish here for them and the mullet run coincides with this timeframe which is the bait of choice for tarpon. We often go out early and catch bait or buy it when we have to to give you all the best shot at catching fish. Bait is part of the game and can definitely make or break your day but April is often nice because the bait is usually still pretty easy to catch. Sometimes later in late May/June it gets tougher on that front for sure but every year is different.

Anyways Capt. Trent who has been running our 18′ skiff this season has been doing pretty good. He’s been mixing it up a lot of trips but the last three trips all yielded nice tarpon catches for his anglers along with large nurse sharks, lemon sharks, rays, groupers, and cubera snappers. He’s also been catching a lot of nice mangrove snapper for clients for a little hook & hook, and a few resident snook as well. He’s got plenty of availability still in April and he along with my team of guys will be working together to keep the bait stocked up and in the know as far as where the best tarpon fishing is.

I’m also happy to announce Capt. Stephen Byrd is joining the team and will be running my boat for me on my off days (usually Friday & Saturday right now) and will also soon be available for evening trips just about any evening (the 4 pm to 8 pm window). Right now we have most Friday and Saturdays available the next few months with him. He’ll still be available at my older rate not my new seasonal rate too which you can find info on that on my charter FAQ page.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina
Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got out with one of my regulars Paul and his buddies.  We had a late cold front come through it didn’t get terribly cold but water temps definitely dropped to the high 60s in the bay and the gulf remainded a little warmer in the low 70s.  It was borderline questionable whether or not it was gonna be worthwhile.  But I was just talking to a friend of mine the other night about a few years back having a late front this time of year and doing well as it seemed the tarpon were well settled and happy and a little temp drop didn’t bother them that time.  So I figured being that theres been a ton of tarpon around it might be the same case.  The guys wanted to give it a shot so off we went.  We were loaded with mullet that I caught the day before.  We got out there and it wasn’t too bad of a ride over aside from the cold you definitely needed a sweatshirt and pants.  The wind stays northeast early and was blowing a good 15 mph, but turned more east/southeast later in the day and picked up to 20-25 which made for a little rougher ride home but nothing the Contender couldn’t handle.  We got out there and had to look around for a few minutes but we saw some busting fish.  I set up and sure enough our first bait out got picked up by a tarpon within about 10 minutes, though he threw the hook unfortunately.  After that we caught some sharks and moved around a few times, eventually getting into more tarpon.  We ended up catching four believe it or not, a couple large 100+ lb fish and then a couple in the 60 lb range.  Really great fishing to get 5 bites in not great conditions.  A big bull shark did get one of our tarpon though and a pack of bulls came in and finished her off unfortunately after we released it.  Hate seeing that but sometimes nothing you can do.  Anyways I don’t think we’ll be getting too much more cold weather but you never know, but at least for the next few weeks I doubt it’ll get cold enough to push those fish away.  Come April the tarpon should be loading up more around the bridges and channels and that bite should get a little better but the backcountry is often where its at in February and March.  I have a couple days left open at the end of March and a handful of days in April.  Prime tarpon time is now don’t miss out!  Again I’m doing my seasonal rate but only fishing 3 days a week so I can move things around often if the conditions dont look good (I even offered that on this day but the guys wanted to go!)  And you can get some cool video clips or even a full youtube video of your catch like this!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina

Got out yesterday with a couple good friends Bobby & Gina.  Bobby I went to coral shores high school with down here and we’re still good friends.  I caught some mullet locally early in the morning and we headed out.  The time change it was still near day break which was nice.  Was sort of pre-frontal condition we had a decent west wind, not blowing too hard but once we got offshore in the near gulf, you definitely get some larger swells there in the open water.  Luckily my contender bay boat can handle it no problem, though I will say we didn’t see another boat out there all day!  Tarpon were flopping around just about everywhere.  We hooked one with the first bait out after about 15 minutes.  Stud fish of 100 lbs or so, she screamed drag for a good 10 second freight train run before jumping!  Could’ve nearly spooled us honestly!  We fought her for a good 15 minutes and got her boat side though she popped off on the leader.  It’s especially hard to leader big fish for a trophy shot picture when you are getting tossed around in big swells, and aside with the shark problem as bad as it is I honestly rather the fish break off with good energy left to be able to evade them.  After that we started getting some shark bites so we jumped around.  We ended up catching two more tarpon that we got leader releases on and quite a few more sharks including a couple large bulls.  I was able to get a couple cool jumping videos you can check out down below.  I have a couple days open near the end of the month and still a few days in April and May.  Again I’m doing a season rate that’s slightly higher but I’m only fishing 3x a week, so I can often move your day around if the weather is bad or I think fishing is not gonna be worthwhile.  And I also film a lot of the trip and can send you cool professionally edited clips such as this.  Give me a shout and if I’m not available my other captains are doing a great job these days too and are available to be booked for any trip length or date as long as they’re open!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina

Got out with repeat customer Irv and his buddy Billy.  Irv lives down here in the winter and has fished with me for quite a few years now, as does Billy.  We were able to make a last minute skip trip happen this coming week (leaving tomorrow) but luckily Irv was able to go today as we were suppose to go tomorrow.  Conditions looked great we had fairly calm winds and it’s gotten nice & warm lately – spring has sprung!  I was able to catch some bait Friday since I was showing one of my new captains a little about fishing and saved that for the day.  We got out early at 6:30 AM and made it back to the tarpon grounds quickly.  At first glance we didn’t see a whole lot… I spent some time rigging and scanning the horizon but alas, not much as far as visible fish jumping and splashing as they like to do.  Then we ran another couple miles north down the beachlines and bingo – huge tarpon airing out free jumping, sometimes 3, 4, even 5 at a time!  A few fly fisherman were in on them too but for the most part it was a lot of wide open water calling us!  We set up and had the last trickle of falling tide for an hour or so.  It was dead low tide but the current often runs about an hour or so after the level hits low.  Sure enough we got into some good groups of fish we could see them splashing and marked them on our fish finders.  We had to put a little time in and there was no by-catch, just sitting and waiting for a bite!  But we hooked into 4 good tarpon and landed all 4 of them.  Not monsters they were all 40 to 60 lbs… fun size as I like to say as you get a good fight and nice acrobatics but you aren’t pulling on some monster for an hour +, and you can often get good pictures by the boat as they’re more cooperative with that.  I think Irv landed 3 and Billy got 1.  We had a couple others grab the baits and just spit ’em out before we even knew what happened.  Once the tide turned the tarpon seemed to spread out a lot and then the sharks and other junk moved in.  We decided to give the tarpon a break and tried some large snook spots which was productive… we landed 4 big snook in the 15 to 20 lb range.  What an unbelievable finish to just an awesome day!  I don’t have too much left in March but I do have a few days open, and I still have a few dates left in ‘prime time’ April & May.  I have a feeling we’re on the verge of some epic fishing this  year as the water quality seems much improved in the backcountry and I guess call it just gut feeling but I think we’re due for a really good season.  One thing also I know the red tide up the coast is very bad right now and while it’s a terrible thing there, it sometimes leads to good fishing where we are as the fish don’t want to go north into that stuff.  Time will tell I suppose!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina

Got out just showing one of my young captains (Trent) a little more about tarpon fishing in Islamorada.  We did a bit of recon and were going over some strategies and such.  Found a good amount of bait nearby locally so that was good to see.  Mullet will likely start becoming the bait of choice as we get into March, April, and May.  We found a few rolling tarpon in a nearby channel and sure enough set up and hooked one within about 15 minutes!  Nice medium size fish around 40-50 lbs.  So that was good to see!  After that we just kind of did some looking around and didn’t end up putting the rods out again.  Didn’t see much for tarpon life around the bridges though we did find one other little channel further south that had a good load of tarpon laying on the bottom.  So there are definitely fish starting to show up and assuming we dont get too much more cold weather, you can have a good shot at catching some early season fish.  My young guys are hungry so doing an afternoon/early evening trip is a possibility and the nice thing then you really get the fishing grounds to yourself as not many guys are doing evening trips until late March/April.  So just a possibility and that is often available somewhat short notice so you can cherry pick conditions.  Anyways hopefully much more to come soon.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina