March 2018

3/5/18 – Post cold front the water temperatures chilled down a lot and still fairly windy.  We planned on a mixed bag day and I told the guys I didn’t have a ton of faith in the tarpon fishing.  We caught our limit of snappers early.  Then got some fresh bait to try for some tarpon at the bridge.  Saw quite a few fish, but no activity out of them but we did have some wicked barracuda bites!  We then hit the patch reefs and caught a bunch of hogfish and small groupers which was fun.  We tried close to home for a tarpon but kind of caught the end of the tide… did have a few around us but again no bite.  0 for 0

3/6/18 – Got out with regulars Rich and Luke Cromwell for a day.  Today the winds laid out nice with a slight east breeze then kicked up out of the south in the afternoon.  Since it was so pretty I decided to run in the backcountry.  We found a few tarpon early on in the AM but no love out of them, again on the tide change first thing.  We kept going and caught some bait and then went to look for some triple tails.  That was productive we caught several of them and wound up off the mainland looking for tarpon.  We found a few which was great but they weren’t super active biting.  We caught several sharks including some big bulls, blacktips, and spinners.  Rich got a monster snook that was about 20 lbs too!  Then a little later we made a move and got Luke on a big old 120 lb tarpon!  He fought it well for an hour and we got some good pictures.  Had plenty of fish around following our hooked fish, but by the time we landed her seemed like things had spread out a good bit.  The tide changed too and we had plenty more shark action but no more tarpon bites.  Anyways good to see, the next front is coming in Thursday night so it will likely slow the bite down again but overall I think it will be a good thing and help clean up some of the dirty water we’ve been dealing with in the bay.  Hopefully by early next week the tarpon bite will pick back up.  1 for 1

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

Got out with Tony and Sam today for a full day trip.  A cold front started to come in yesterday and today it was blowing hard north this morning.  But the temperatures didn’t really cool down yet, that will be tonight.  So the water was warm and I figured we would have a shot at getting a tarpon.  With all the wind and how tough the fishing has been out in the backcountry for them, we opted to stay close to home.  We got on a good tarpon bite early, and had 4 fish bite but only kept one of them on.  Tony released his first tarpon and biggest fish ever, a 65 lber!  Nice job!  After that we were out of bait so we went to catch some more which was fairly easy.  We then hit the patch reefs and caught a few various snapper and some hogfish.  Then we tried around the bridges for tarpon.  Saw a bunch but the tide was just starting out, so the water was clear and the fish were staying under the bridge.  Being a saturday there were about 30 people fishing from the bridge so it got frustrating real quick.  We did see a big hammerhead with a bunch of barracuda following him which was cool.  We ran back and tried our morning tarpon spot again.  Saw a fish roll and we set up.  No more tarpon for us but Sam got a big 300 lb bull shark!  Really cool fish and crazy to see them so close to home like that.  I had heard reports of them being caught the last few days.  After that we called it a day.  Tonight the temps will drop some and that might slow the tarpon down a little bit, plus Thursday is another reinforcing cold front.  But it’ll warm back up at some point and at least give the tarpon a little break they’ve had a very early start this year.  1 for 4

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

Got out with Dave and Frank again for day two today.  Yesterday we had really good fishing but today the conditions definitely were changing.  A cold front is coming in, though the temperatures hadn’t dropped but the winds did swing around from southeast to northwest.  It wasn’t cranking though maybe 5-10 mph in the morning then picked up to 15 mph on the way home.  We made the long run to where we had caught the tarpon the last couple days.  Today though they up and disappeared!  That’s part of the gamble with that though… it can be absolutely epic or it can be listening to the crickets for hours.  We did manage to find one group of fish though but we didn’t get a bite out of them.  Though our sister boat that was fishing the other part of the party did catch one there at least.  We had a few sharks and rays too.  We tried a channel on the way home in the bay but no signs of life there, we fished it hard for 45 minutes and then called it a day.  With the temperatures dropping and the tarpon fishing being as fickle as it is, might give it a break for a few days until it gets nice again.  0 for 0

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