July 2017

Got out with Sean and his son Kyle today for a full day in the backcountry everglades in Islamorada for some tarpon fishing.  The winds were kicking southwest about 20 mph, and it was forecast to be nasty with rain but didn’t really show up until the end of the day thankfully so we made it out.  Bait was easy we caught a bunch and headed to the tarpon channels.  Plenty of fish in there this morning, saw several busts and a few rollers, and was marking a lot on my sonar.  I figured we’d get bit up quick since it was pretty good yesterday.  Though today they were not quite as happy, we waited it out and after 45 minutes or so, Kyle hooked a nice 70 lb fish.  He did a great job and the fish fought hard but we got him up for pictures.  After that things slowed down we had a few small sharks that was it.  We tried further up the channel and got a big sting ray.  After that we made a move and hit another channel where I had gotten them the other day later in the day.  We got a bite right away and kyle landed another fish, smaller guy about a 35 lber – fun size!  After that it was dads turn he hooked a nice larger fish again about a 70 lber.  We fought him for about 5 minutes and got him to the leader and he made a glorious jump off the bow but threw the hook.  We got some great pictures though and they don’t all cooperate for pictures, but we had the leader to the tip for a technical release.  After that Sean hooked up a big hammerhead we landed, and then got a smaller hammer, which was very cool.  The rain started to show up off the mainland and we stopped to bend the light rods with some ladyfish and then headed home.  Quite a lightning show offshore of Islamorada when we got back there, luckily we made it home without any trouble.  Taking tomorrow off to pull my boat for some boat work, and then I’m open later this week.  As you can tell fishing is really good right now I hope it will keep up, August is still a great time too.  I have plenty of availability so if you are thinking about it, look me up!  3 for 3

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
@richardstanczyk

Got out with Rylan, Caden, and Maddy Grace today down from Pensacola.  They come every year for the lobster mini season usually.  We also had Capt. Jim Willcox with the other part of the party.  We kind of did our own things, I focused on tarpon.  Bait was decent this morning and we found plenty of tarpon.  We had a pretty good southwest wind, not my favorite.  I was worried the fishing might get tough, but they didn’t seem to mind.  We had 5 tarpon bites in the first stop in about a 2 1/2 hour period!  Unfortunately we had trouble keeping them on, we got one fish to the boat for pictures, and another we got on the leader though he took off underneath the boat and got wrapped around my transducer and cut off… a technical catch but still leaves you feel wanting afterwards.  After the tide quit we went and caught a bunch of ladyfish for fun and saved a few of them for bait.  Then we tried another channel where I found tarpon in the afternoon yesterday.  We had a couple bites there too, jumped one, and then hooked one that again we got up to the leader next to the boat, and he took off and we pulled the hook.  But we got 1 up for pictures at least and it was great action along with some sharks.

I’m booked tomorrow and then off tuesday, but again I’m open all through the rest of the week expect Saturday.  Can’t promise it’ll stay like this, but as you can see from my blog the tarpon fishing has been pretty stellar the last several days.  August can be a great time!  3 for 7

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
@richardstanczyk

Got out with Glenn and his son Jack today for a full days fishing.  We went after tarpon as that’s been the thing to do as of late.  They had fished last night with someone though fishing was tough locally they only had 1 bite on a crab that they did not catch, so I was hoping we’d be able to put it together today.  Winds were kicking a little out of the southwest – not a direction I particularly like, though it wasn’t howling so that was good.  We caught a little bait on the way out and hit the channels.  Lots of boats out today, people were fishing just about everywhere I went.  We got on a few tarpon early, Glenn jumped one off, and then later on landed a nice 50 lber plus several sharks for them both.  I think we caught the same nurse shark three times!  After that we did some light rod action, trout fishing was very good.  We looked off the mainland for some tarpon with the tide starting to fall, but didn’t see much.  They usually dont like that southwest wind out there as it blows on shore and muds the waters up a bit, the little sharks were there and horrendous though.  We went inside the creeks to try a spot for snook, we didn’t have any live bait but gave the artificials a try.  No luck with the snook and the bugs were kind of bad, but I marked 3 fish go by on the sonar that I thought were tarpon.  We put a big rod out and before we knew it hooked a big 80 lb tarpon!  It was a battle in the small creek and I had to use the trolling motor and the big motor to maneuver around.  We landed the fish and got him on the leader a few times, but we couldn’t get her to roll over.  Unfortunately she got under the boat and around the trolling motor very quickly, and broke off and we broke the rod tip in the process which stunk because they don’t make that particular rod any longer but at least I still have quite a few spares!  Anyways after that we headed back towards flamingo to try another spot for the last part of the day.  We didn’t see any tarpon where i found them yesterday, but we tried a channel close by.  When we pulled in it just looked fishy… nice green, clean water with a good tide and breeze blowing across it.  I saw a fish roll soon after we set up and knew we’d get some shots.  We ended up getting 3 tarpon, and some big lemon sharks and other sharks, it was a great way to finish the last hour of the day!  Glenn and Jack had a day they won’t soon forget.  I’m fishing the next couple days I just booked Monday, and then Tuesday I’m putting on hold to pull my boat to do some work.  Though I’m available from later in the week and have plenty of dates in August.  The tarpon fishing can still be very good this time of year, sometimes better then ‘prime time’ in the spring.  Give me a shout and we can put it together!  5 for 6

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
@richardstanczyk