June 2015

Had a half day this morning.  Right now it is usually better to book a 3/4 or full day as the everglades fishery has been a little hotter, plus the bait is catchable back there.  Bait has been very tough to come by locally.  Luckily I caught some back there the other day and still had some leftover.  We took off early in the dark so we would have a couple hours of falling tide at least.  It paid off.  We hooked a nice ‘mud marlin’ early on and got him to the boat for some pictures.  After that we eventually hooked a nice 75 lb tarpon.  A good fight we chased him around and he only jumped once and then was fighting us down and dirty.  Eventually we got him up for some good pictures.  After that the tide was really slowing and it was tough to keep our baits out away from the boat.  A tarpon picked up a bait and did a big loop around the boat and jumped on the other side, taking the line completely around the engine and other line that was out.  Luckily I was able to get around everything and we got the other lines in and chased after the fish!  We got him to the boatside on the leader though pulled the hooks on him before we could get good pictures, though a technical catch anyways!  After the the tide slacked for a while and eventually started in, but the bite was over with.  We were glad to have gotten out early!  I have full days coming up the next several days.  With the weather staying nice and calm, the tarpon fishing in the everglades should stay hot!  2 for 2

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Fishing continues to be hot.  We ran back into the everglades this morning.  A bit of an ominous looking start with the weather but things cleared up and it stayed nice and overcast.  Winds were south to start but laid out flat for most of the day.  We were able to catch some mullet around some backcountry areas pretty good which was nice.  They’d been hard to come by.  We found some fish off the beaches and they were very happy.  Not rolling to much but you’d see one every once in a while.  We got lined up on them and the action was hot and heavy.  We caught 5 out of 5 which was very good especially for smaller sized fish in the 30 to 60 lb range!  Several sharks as well.  By mid day the tide slacked and things slowed down, a few more sharks.  Then we jumped 1 more tarpon when the tide turned and started coming in.  The tarpon started showing very good then, but did not want to feed really well.  Anyways another fantastic day.  Half day tomorrow going to try and leave early and stay fairly close.  5 for 6

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

More good tarpon action today.  We got out extra early as we had a slack tide to start the day.  We were able to catch the last trickle of falling tide for about 45 minutes.  Saw a few fish roll as the tide slacked and finally got our bite, though we jumped him off unfortunately.  After that we hung around a little longer though it got later in the morning and didn’t feel right.  So we ran in the backcountry.  Found some good fish off the mainland, our first bite back there after 20 minutes was a nice 80 lb tarpon we hooked and landed.  Got some good boatside pics thanks to another fellow captain.  After that things slowed a little we caught a few sharks.  Then when the tide started to quit back there fish popped up just outside of us.  We set up on them and caught 1 out of 3 in about 15 minutes!  I figured when the tide turned it was going to go off, though the fish didn’t respond after that.  Was very weird they bit on the slack tide and not the moving water… go figure!  Anyways a great day tarpon and sharks.  Bait is getting tougher and tougher I’m totally out of stock right now going to have to try to find something tomorrow!  2 for 5

Capt. Rick Stanczyk