May 2018

Well it slicked out today and I thought it was going to be one of those epic days…  But not so for us!  I had Ronald and his wife and we ran out into the backcountry.  They got their a little later then I had wanted to I changed my plans a bit but figured it’d still be a good bet.  But there were just not many fish at all out back anywhere… I think they must’ve moved out to spawn or something.  We checked quite a few areas, and I was in touch with several other guides too.  Only saw a handful of fish in a couple spots, and when I say a handful I mean just two or three!  We did have decent shark action at least, and got a nice triple tail on a GULP shrimp while waiting for tarpon.  We finally got one bite in the last hour of the day, though unfortunately it didn’t stay buttoned and spit the hook and bait straight away.  Another boat my buddy caught one next to us just before that.  Anyways hard fishing with perfect conditions.   I heard there were a lot of fish locally around town, but everybody said they were acting funny and not biting well either.  Doing the daisy chaining, all balled up looking like they were getting ready to spawn and such.  Anyways hopefully it’ll get better in our areas soon.  I have the same crew again tomorrow we are planning on the early departure, might make the long run to see if those fish are where they were yesterday!  0 for 1

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

5/5/18 – Got out today with Jesper over from Denmark.  Didn’t know if we’d make it out we got the remenants of an early tropical system that formed out in the atlantic.  Lots of rain early on.  But we made it out and did get a little wet but not too bad then it got real nice.  The tarpon were pretty thick around the bridges early, we caught one pretty much right away on the last trickle of the tide.  But one of those catches where we got him near the boat on our wind-on leader right away, then after we pulled on him for a few minutes he surged and the hook pulled.  So a technical catch but no picture which Jesper really wanted.  After that the tide slowed and took a long time to change, boats got crowded.  We moved around and got one bite on a live bait that we missed and that was about all she wrote.  We tried a few other areas and saw some tarpon, but it got very calm, with clear water and sunny skies and they were just not wanting to feed.  But glad we got him one at least hopefully next time we can get some pictures!  1 for 2

5/6/18 – Today I was with Mark and his son Andrew.  We made a long trek into the everglades.  South wind not cranking but I don’t normally like that direction, and wanted to get away from the crowds being the weekend.  One certain area on a south wind can be good because it is protected back there, and I had good fishing there last week one day.  But it is a bit of a gamble as it’s a long run and if the fish aren’t there you have to run back a good ways for your second move sometimes.  But the guys were willing to try it and it paid off.  We had to look around a bit, but we found a good school of fish.  Lots of little guys showing, we jumped off a couple after a bit that didn’t stick on the hook.  Them Mark got about a 120 lber, big fish!  After that Andrew got an 80 lber.  Then a few sharks and the tarpon seemed to move on after about 10:00.  Sometimes that is an early morning thing and luckily we got there early!  We finished the day catching a snook and tried a few other spots but not much other luck.  2 for 4

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

Last day with Stepan Polymers group today.  We decided to mix it up a bit and didn’t focus too much on tarpon specifically.  Caught some smaller fish to start the day with trout and ladyfish which was fun.  Checked a few channels for tarpon out back but didn’t see any signs of life of them.  Winds let up slightly from the previous days so we ran further.  I looked around in some other areas, saw a couple roll but didn’t seem like a ton.  But figured we’d have good shark action which we did.  Caught a few blacktips and then we tried some snook fishing.  Got one nice big snook on an artificial and then the winds started howling.  We tried some areas inside one of the big canals looking for tarpon.  Found a few in there too but no bites early on.  We caught some little finger mullets though and then decided to try for snook which we caught a few more.  While doing that we got a nice little 25 lb tarpon!  Fun final day with these guys, looks like the winds are suppose to let up somewhat now, no more blowing 30 mph which will be very nice!  This weekend though we are getting some tropical weather so rain is likely, may shorten our days but we’ll see.  Then hopefully some calmer weather next week and we can maybe start more of our summer time fishing!  1 for 1

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