July 2018

Got out with James today for a tarpon fishing charter in Islamorada.  We had some leftover bait from my brother as he was going to go last night but didn’t, and we did catch a few fresh ones nearby too.  There was definitely some weather still rolling around and the stiff southwest breeze which had been cruddy for the backcountry fishing I normally do the last couple days.  I gave James the options of fishing local like we did yesterday and just fishing till we ran out of bait for tarpon around the bridges, or running out into the backcountry to do other stuff and possibly getting lucky and finding a tarpon back there.  He wasn’t real sure so he let me choose and being that we had good fishing yesterday for tarpon locally I figured we’d try that again.  Unfortunately today was a different story.  We set up in the same area we were yesterday but no tarpon love.  Did get a few nurse sharks and a big cubera snapper which was cool.  We moved several times, and had a couple other boats down there doing the same thing.  But nobody had a hook up that I saw, funny because it was the same conditions really.  Got near the tide change and I thought for sure they’d turn on but no signs of life from them.  I did see  a few on the sonar so I know they were there just not wanting to play.  We tried another bridge for the last 40 minutes or so, and I even gave it an extra hour since I know we had a full day scheduled originally but at this point it didn’t really make sense to stay out as we were out of bait and running into the backcountry at 10:30 was not going to be a productive option plus nasty storms back there starting to roll in.  Oh well was bound to strike out at some point and case in point about why I hate the ‘around town’ fishing it’s just not consistent any more these days.  Looks like the weather will be getting slightly better the next few days, Thursday it might lay down more and be swinging more southeast then more easterly by Friday.  We should get better fishing out back then hopefully for my last week of fishing here before we head out of town the first week of August.  0 for 0

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

The weather looked a little nasty to start today.  We still had a stiff westerly breeze with several lines of thunderstorms rolling in early.  No way to leave the dock at my normal early departure time with all the lightning around.  We decided to wait and see what it looked like around 7 AM.  Things cleared up enough but I honestly still wasn’t super excited about going as we had a limited bait supply and with the conditions changing I knew fishing would likely be tough.  But I did have a good tip there were a few fish around some of the bridges and that may be a good option.  We looked around locally nearby first, and didn’t see much in a couple spots but eventually did find a school of tarpon.  We lined up and got in their zone, did have one come up and roll in our baits and thought we’d get him but no love.  After that they seemed to disappear.  I was bummed as I thought that may of been our shot.  Anyways after that I knew the tidal stage was right to try around the bridge.  We ran there and looked around and set up near where I thought some fish might be and soon we hooked a 40 lber!  Landed him and several fish followed him around which was good, they were there!  We got him and set back up and then another 10 minutes later hooked a big mean 100 lber.  This fish we battled for a good hour chasing him all over for 1.5 miles.  Got it boat side and rolled over but just as we did he went through the leader so we didn’t get any good boatside pictures, oh well but a good catch none the less.  After that I thought things may be over with as the tide started ripping and we had a good deal of grass coming through making it a little more difficult to fish.  But the boys wanted to stay and we still had a half dozen baits left so we gave it longer.  About on our last bait we hooked another 100 lb tarpon and we ran him down getting the wind on leader on to our rod tip for a technical catch, but unfortunately we got a little too much heat on the fish and he surged and snapped the line.  You always have to go kind of easy on tarpon in the beginning of the fight as they are big strong fish, the more heat you put on them when they are ‘green’ running hard, jumping, etc… the more likely they will either throw the hook, or snap the line.  After they settle down and you get in that 20 yard tug-of-war where they are just barely swimming along but not rolling over, is when you put the wood to ’em.  Oh well a great day very happy to see such good fishing with less than ideal conditions and off of my usual backcountry routine this time of year.  Looks like we will have similar conditions tomorrow though the winds will (hopefully) lighten up a little.  Bait might be a tough thing too as I’m out of my stockpile now so that will be first on the list to do.  3 for 3

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

Well all good things must come to an end and today unfortunately the streak of great fishing came to a screeching halt!  We didn’t blow the catch streak though and did manage to catch a tarpon at least.  We had a stiff west breeze and lots of thunderstorms around in the AM.  None of the fish much like a west wind in the backcountry, it blows onshore and mucks up the water.  Certain areas can be OK that are protected or super shallow, but not the stuff we regularly fish.  Anyways we made the run back and thankfully had bait already, as the bait dried up too due to the weather.  We looked hard in a couple channels and didn’t see much.  Though I did have a feeling one might be laying where we had caught some tarpon yesterday.  We set up and soon one rolled right behind us and we hooked him!  A nice 40 lber for Johnnie.  After that we got a big sting ray and that was it.  We tried another channel and got a sharpnose shark.  Then we tried out off the mainland and got a couple blacktips, that was all.  We looked in one of the creeks and found a bunch of small tarpon, but no action out of them.  They don’t typically respond well but figured it was worth a shot.  We then looked in a couple other areas and talked to a fellow guide who hadn’t had any luck with the tarpon.  We ended up finishing the day catching some trout which was actually pretty good fishing.  It looks like we’ll have this wind through tomorrow then it’ll be southwesterly but at least dying out to 5-10 mph so they may get happy again.  Back to it tomorrow I may change my game plan up we’ll see.  1 for 1

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