March 2018

Got out with Michelle and her son Matthew today for a 3/4 day of tarpon fishing in Islamorada.  We decided to run back into the everglades as a good wad of fish had been back there the last few days.  But it is prefrontal with temperatures suppose to be dropping back into the high 50s the next couple nights.  So tomorrow morning may be the last of it, if not today.  We caught bait early and headed out, plenty of fish there early I mean a lot of ’em!  We got a bite fairly quick and Michelle hooked a big one about 120 lbs.  We fought it for about 45 minutes chasing it down the channel.  Michelle fought it well and we landed her and got some good pictures.  Later on she hooked another we passed to Matthew, however bad luck the hook broke on us!  She later hooked a nice cobia that Matthew caught about a 40 lber… nice fish!  Matthew had a couple tarpon bites later too but unfortunately they didn’t stay on the hook.  Been having quite a few get away on me the last couple trips but at least we’ve been catching a few.  Anyways that was about all she wrote we headed back around noon.  Funny no shark bites at all today, the sharks have been a little strange in the backcountry this year for sure.  Back at it tomorrow I have a half day scheduled not sure what I’m doing yet, but after tomorrow I think the tarpon thing might be over for a couple days at least.  Hopefully no more cold fronts as we get into April!  1 for 4

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

Well today it got slick calm and that let the water temperatures rise fast.  These types of days are when the tarpon show up in droves after it’s been cold, especially this time of year.  I had Myron and Keith down from Minnesota, they wanted to get Myron his first tarpon.  I told the boys it looked like good conditions and that we might want to fish a 3/4 day as opposed to the half day we had scheduled, which would give us some extra time to run into the backcountry where I like to fish often.  They were good with it and so we made the run back there.  We ran deep into the glades and found some fish way back there in one of the areas a fly fishermen buddy of mine had said he saw them late the afternoon before.  They were there first thing and we set up.  We hooked a shark and then hooked a tarpon soon after… a great sign!  The tarpon didn’t stay on unfortunately, but a little bit later we got another one that did.  Keith caught it.  After that Myron jumped another one, just wasn’t having good luck keeping them on the hook.  Later on Keith hooked another but let Myron have it, so he got to catch his first tarpon and both the guys landed one – great!  We had a few more sharks and then the tide quit on us.  We hooked a big ray that we chased around for a while.  By the time we were done with that the tide had switched.  We had two baits left and we set back up where I saw some more fish showing.  We got another bite after a few minutes and Myron had another shot at a tarpon. Unfortunately though that one came off too, nothing he did terribly wrong just part of fishing!  But anyways they both got to catch one and it was solid action some of the best I’ve had this year.  Tomorrow could likely be the same but I have the day off.  I think tuesday and wednesday should be decent for tarpon, the winds will crank up and start swinging around though as we have another front coming in Wednesday night.  But it should be warm enough until then so it’s worth a shot.  Hopefully this will be the last cold front of the year but who knows it’s been a crazy March with 4 or 5 good fronts now!  2 for 5

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

Got out with Eric today for a half day tarpon fishing trip in Islamorada.  We had another major cold front the last few days, with temperatures dropping into the mid 50s for several nights in a row, and the water getting down into the low 60s in several places.  Yesterday it finally calmed down some and looks like it will remain that way through the weekend into early next week.  But again now looks like wednesday night we have another front coming in and thursday night it’s suppose to dip into the 50s again!  Just crazy cold weather for March after having such a hot february where it was 80 degrees every day.  Anyways Eric really wanted to try for a tarpon so I told him I thought we had a shot with it being calm and warming up, but that the water was still cold so it may be tough.  I went out early and caught bait with my buddy and we ended up getting a couple dozen mullet, enough to fish hard with.  We found some fish local in one of the areas I’ve been fishing frequently.  The water was about 67 to start with, we didn’t get much action at all.  Saw some fish rolling and moved around a little bit, eventually after about an hour and a half, we hooked a big tarpon!  It screamed off line and jumped like crazy.  We gave chase and were able to get all the way up on the wind-on leader for a technical catch.  However the fish got around one of the channel markers.  I had Eric back the drag off, and we tried going around the mark several different ways but just couldn’t get untangled.  The fish stayed on for a good minute or two afterwards, but eventually broke off!  The line must of got trapped in some hard barnacles or maybe something else down there….  Anyways as I say on my page a ‘technical release’ is where we get the wind-on leader into the tip of the rod, but the fish may still be 30 feet away from the boat.  This is how long your IGFA leaders are allowed to be, so for tournament fishing etc… it would still count as a caught fish.  But of course still doesn’t feel that way sometimes especially when you don’t really get to see the fish next to the boat.  Anyways we looked around in some of the other channels after that and didn’t see any other bodies of fish.  So we came back and had fish around us the rest of the time but didn’t get another tarpon bite.  Tough we did get a couple big nurse sharks and a cuda.  Anyways Eric was happy to have hooked one and had a good time, he said he’d be back hopefully at a later date and maybe when the fishing was a little better.  March can be really good, but with the cold weather we’ve been having lately it hasn’t made it easy.  I hope after this week it’ll stop!  I have a half day tomorrow morning that we may extend and I think I’ll be tarpon fishing again.  Hopefully the fish will treat us a little better.  Stay tuned!  1 for 1

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