April 2017

Got out with Michael and Brian today.  Michael is a writer for the Wichita Eagle, the largest newspaper in the Kansas City area.  He said he’d be doing a little write up about his experience today so I was hoping fishing would be good!  We had a minor front hit us last night, winds swung around to the northwest, not hard but a steady 10-15 mph.  We went a little early and hooked a nice tarpon a little after 7 which Michael fought for about an hour!  We got him boatside several times on the leader, but he just wouldn’t roll over or cooperate for pictures.  Michael didn’t want to over stress him so we ended up popping him off.  After that we went to another area and had plenty of shark action, bonnet heads, nurses, and atlantic sharp nose, and finally had a tarpon eat a live mullet which Brian caught!  This one wasn’t quite as big maybe 60 lbs, and we landed him in 15 minutes and he was more cooperative for pictures thankfully.  After that we went and caught some dinner for the girls who didn’t get to come fishing, some nice mangrove snappers.  We finished up in the channels and caught the start of the falling tide.  Found some tarpon there too we had one eat a live mullet but didn’t get the hooks in him unfortunately, but ended up getting a big nurse shark on the bottom.  All in all a fine day I was glad the fish cooperated a bit.  Looks like some more west wind tomorrow then it should be swinging back to a more normal east and hopefully not blowing as hard as it was the last few weeks!  2 for 3

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got out with Darrel again for our last morning trip.  He had to catch an earlier flight than he thought, so we went extra early and fished 5:30 to 9:30.  Thought the rain might foil our plans, but it stopped raining around 5 AM and really turned out to be the nicest morning we’ve had in 3 weeks or so!  The winds laid down around 8:30 or so to 10 mph and it got very nice and hardly anybody was out.  We had a tarpon bite early we landed in one of the local channels.  After that we didn’t have much else so we went down to the bridges.  We ended up getting a couple bites there in the last hour, we jumped one off and Darrel had the other one on for a minute though he ended up throwing the hook too.  Anyways we were happy to get one.  Looks like we have a late weak cold front hitting us the next few nights, suppose to get in the high 60s tuesday evening though the winds are very light out of the northwest the next couple days.  Hopefully won’t mess up the fishing… who knows it may make it good!  Got a full day tomorrow, debating whether to stay around town or venture out back if it gets real nice.  We’ll see!  1 for 3

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got out with Darrel again today we had similar conditions as yesterday with a hard east breeze and a bit of rain around.  We managed to stay away from the nasty weather for the most part though.  We ran out into the backcountry, had to look around but found some tarpon.  They weren’t in the same area as the last few times, but we managed a couple bites early on and caught one.  Funny because yesterday they didn’t bite early and did later on.  After that we never had another tarpon bite, but caught lots of sharks.  We moved a few times and did see a few fish later in the day but no action.  That was all she wrote we caught some bait on the way home and are suppose to fish a half day tomorrow morning, but looks like nasty weather so not sure if we will get out or not.  1 for 2

Capt. Rick Stanczyk