June 2018

Got out with Dave, Jack, and Wally for a full day of tarpon fishing.  They were down from NJ father, son, and grandfather – 3 generations of fishermen!  Tarpon were the target.  I told the boys we had a decent day yesterday the west wind didn’t shut the fish down so I figured today may be OK too.  We caught some bait on the way and made a go of it.  Fishing was very good first cast Dave got a big old snook, and a little later Jack got an even bigger one!  Then we proceeded to catch 7 tarpon out of 11 bites!  It was just crazy multiple fish for everybody on board.  The guys did a fantastic job listening and fighting the fish the proper way so we had a pretty good catch ratio.  The bite lasted really the whole time we were there though at the end the big sharks moved in.  We caught some big blacktips, lemon sharks, and sting rays too.  Just incredible not going more than 5 minutes without a bite!  Back at it tomorrow hopefully this lasts a bit longer!  7 for 11

P.S. Tarpon under 40 inches may be lifted out of the water for a quick picture we try to be very careful and not drop them and release them quickly afterwards.

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

Got out with return customer Dave and his buddy Rich today for some tarpon fishing.  We hit it out early and made the deep everglades run.  Was a little worried we had a wind shift and it was blowing out of the west which can really goof up our fishing sometimes.  Though the wind wasn’t cranking it was 5-10 mph.  I figured we’d give it a look back where I’d been going and could hit some other stuff on the way home if we stuck out.  Anyways it was pretty good back there, didn’t look real nice with an onshore breeze and swells kicking up some mud, but the fish were there.  We jumped a big tarpon to start with and caught a few sharks.  Then Rich got a big snook!  Later on Dave got a tarpon, and Rich jumped another tarpon.  Then Dave got a big snook too even bigger than the first one.  We caught a few big blacktips, a big lemon, and big nurse shark as well.  Constant action not going more than 5 minutes without a bite I don’t think.  By 9:30 or so though the tide quit and it seemed to be over with.  We decided to cut it short to a 3/4 day and headed on home.  My buddy found a few tarpon in one of the channels as we were riding home we saw him fighting a double header but he said it was his first bites of the day.  So at least that’s promising hopefully the channels a little closer will continue to get better as we get into July.  Back at it tomorrow.  1 for 3

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

Got out for a full day with Scott, Tom, and Tim down from Arizona.  We hit it early the boys were up for it.  Fishing was good today we caught bait on the way and proceeded to catch some fish!  The tide was trickling in when we got there and then slacked off.  Then it started to fall and things started to bite!  We didn’t miss a single tarpon bite and got eight fish to the hand, and one for a technical release for a total of nine!  Incredible!  We also got two bonus jumbo snooks, one of which got eaten by a shark unfortunately.  Also a few lemon sharks and black tips.  The tide only fell for a couple hours and then started in again which was strange.  Just an incredible day and my best day this season as far as landed fish goes.  I’m off tomorrow but back at it Thursday I think we will be doing this same routine.  Hope it stays like this for a while longer!  9 for 9

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