February 2018

Got out for a 3/4 day with John, Michelle, and Phil.  Tarpon was on the agenda though they also wanted to do a little ‘action fishing’ too.  We did the mackerels early to start and had good luck with that.  We found some tarpon where they had been previously.  Today it was very flat calm though and looked to be a good slug of fish around.  We had the last of the falling tide though it was very weak and died early on us.  We sat for close to an hour and had a shark bite, then finally had something pick up our bait and swim it up under the boat.  I had Phil real on it and a nice tarpon came up jumping off our bow!  We had to quickly get the line out from under the boat and around the trolling motor, but managed to do it without losing the fish!  We chased him around a little bit and landed him!  Nice 85 lb fish though we didn’t get good boat side pics as he broke on the leader while Phil had him wrapped on the gloves.  We set back up and now the tide was coming in and moving pretty good.  We continued to see fish around us but they just weren’t super active feeding.  We had another shark bite us off and then we made a move.  We hooked another big lemon shark and while fighting that, Michelle hooked a smaller 50 lb tarpon!  We fought both for a bit and got the wind-on leader on the tarpon to the rod tip, but he jumped and threw the hook before we could really get him boat side.  Oh well a technical catch anyways.  We got the shark to the boat though.  After that it was about time to head on home, but a great day with variety and a couple tarpon!  I think I’ll be back at it tomorrow looks like we will have good weather for a few days, hopefully they’ll start perking up even more for us!  2 for 2

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

Got out with Howard and Mike, repeat customers from last year, for a full day of backcountry fishing.  We planned to mix it up a bit but tarpon was definitely on the list.  We caught pilchards to start our day and tried to get in on the little tarpon that were biting a few days before.  Today however it seemed to be a different day, the little tarpon were there but not feeding very actively.  We did manage a few mangrove snappers in that spot though.  We then hit the gulf to do some mackerel fishing and did OK with that and then went after some larger tarpon.  The tide was turned and coming in now as we got to the channels.  I didn’t see a whole lot of activity, we scoped out a few areas and I found one spot that I favored.  We set up and Howard ended up getting a nice cobia to start things off, about a 30 lber!  After that we saw a few tarpon free jump further down the channel so we packed up and moved.  Mike had a tarpon bite soon after, about a 40 lb fish not as big as we are use to this time of year.  Unfortunately he jumped towards the boat and never got the hook in a good spot.  A little later I think we had another tarpon zip us too but not sure exactly if it was.  Our sister boat though did catch a big 140 lb tarpon next to us they were fishing the same group as me.  We ended up catching a few more sharks and hooked what I think was a big sawfish, but he cut us off.  So the tarpon won today but we had some good action anyways and all around a great day.  Hopefully they’ll be more cooperative tomorrow!  0 for 1

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

Got out with Bill and Elaine today.  We mixed it up and tried several different things.  I told them the last couple days were slow though we were fishing for certain things, so today I recommended just going fishing were what was biting.  We planned to keep it simple but we ended up getting some quality fish.  We found some juvenile tarpon around some islands and they were biting a little bit.  We caught a couple and had a couple more bites we missed.  The one we got to the boat for pictures was nice about 15 lbs or so, great fun on light tackle.  These fish will hopefully stick around they are good to have on days when you need them.  Aside from the tarpon we also caught nice mangrove snappers, a couple snook, redfish, and some mackerels, blue runners, and juvenile groupers in the gulf.  It was a great day!  Off tomrrow but hopefully the winds will swing more easterly as forecast and the big tarpon bite should improve, there are definitely fish around with as warm as it has been.  2 for 4

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