July 2018

Got out with Fraser and his son Jamie over from Scotland today for a full day tarpon fishing trip.  We devoted most of the day to tarpon.  We caught bait early on the last of the falling tide.  Easy bait again which has been nice!  We found a load of tarpon nearby so we didn’t have to venture to far.  An area where they were a few weeks ago but hadn’t been lately.  They didn’t bite real well early we had to put some time in and move around.  But eventually we got a few to respond and ended up catching three on the last of the falling tide, plus a few small sharks and bluefish.  When the tide quit we moved around to the other end of the channel and there were a lot more tarpon there.  Big ones here as well as medium.  We set up and got bit right away, catching another one for Jamie and then Fraser had one on that we lost after a few minutes.  We moved again and then got a double header!  Landed both fish but didn’t cooperate for the picture.  We then caught a few more, including another double header!  Jamie got a big bull shark and plenty of smaller sharks as well.  We finished the day with nine tarpon total, tying my best day of the year! We were going to give it a little more time but after the last double header they seemed to have disappeared!  I also wanted to hang on to a little bit of bait for my charter in a couple days.  We did look for permit for the last 30 minutes on a gulf spot but no luck, though did get a nice pompano!  Off tomorrow then back at it thursday.  Looks like tomorrow will be epic conditions again, I tried to move my Thursday trip to tomorrow but unfortunately they can’t do it.  Thursday may be fine but looks like we have a little south wind coming.  Light breeze but I know a couple weeks ago the south wind absolutely shut down our good fishing for a day, and gave me my only bust 0 tarpon day in recent memory!  Hopefully that will not be the case and luckily these people have another day on Friday which looks back to normally northeasterly wind very light.  9 for 12

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

Got out with Paul, Christy, and their son Jet Reef again today for Day 2.  They have a TV show in Australia (iFish) and do a lot of promotional social media stuff as well.  We mixed it up again but started out with tarpon.  Caught some bait early and then went after them.  A good amount of fish in the channel where we had found some yesterday later in the day.  Yesterday they shuffled around on us a bit and we had to look around to get back on them.  But they were still in the area today so that is good hopefully they’ll stay put for a little while.  Lots of catfish and junk to deal with but we managed two bites and Christy got a nice 45 lb tarpon to the boat!  Jet reef jumped his off.  After that we caught some pilchards and did some snook fishing to finish the day, landing a half dozen snook.  Back at it tomorrow  1 for 2

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

Got out with Jim and his wife and son, Shannon and Seth, today for a full day charter for tarpon.  We left out early and headed on back.  Caught some bait first thing, again very easy which was nice.  I had a feeling that the bite may be over where I had been fishing lately as it seemed to be thinning out.  So we tried elsewhere near where we had caught bait this morning.  Some tarpon were definitely there, not a ton but some.  Though the sharks ate us alive!  We had a good start of the incoming tide and they were just on our baits every 20 seconds.  We bailed after giving it a good 30 minutes and then tried where I’d been fishing the last several mornings.  I seemed to be right no tarpon bites there we did get several sharks though.  Again after 30 minutes we bailed after not seeing anything.  We then ran further where we had caught some fish the last couple days later in the morning.  But today it seemed to be a graveyard!  It was nice and calm here in the lee of the wind.  But never for sure saw anything roll.  We thought we might of seen one and set up and we did end up getting a tarpon there.  But unfortunately it didn’t stay on our hooks well for pictures.  We did reel him to the boat right at the start for a legal catch, but afterwards he ran off and after fighting him for a few minutes he unbuttoned.  A shame because Seth wanted a tarpon mount and we needed a measurement!  Anyways we bailed from there after fishing one more spot and looking hard and not seeing much.  We ran back towards flamingo as I got the call that my friend had a couple bites there.  We got lucky and found a group of fish but they were mean to us!  The first one we jumped off, then we hooked a 100 lber that I thought for sure would stay on but the line mysteriously snapped!  Just bad luck I asked my crew if they brought bananas on board they said no.  We caught some more sharks and a big sting ray.  Then Jim hooked a nice 40 lb tarpon that we did catch and he let Seth subdue him which was great.  We got our measurements and the boys are thinking it over on doing the fiberglass mount replica.  We had some tripletails floating by us too and we caught a couple including a big 11 lber for dinner which was great!  After that a few more sharks we did see some more tarpon and moved in on them but didn’t get a bite.  Anyways glad to have gotten a couple legal releases, and one to the boat for this family!  Back at it tomorrow.  2 for 4

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