June 2019

6/18/19 – Had Ed and Rochelle out today!  We ran out early into the backcountry.  Found tarpon where I’d been fishing the last week or more again.  We got one straight away and Rochelle landed a nice 80 lber!  After that we had a couple more bites but just couldn’t keep ’em hooked!  Caught a couple nurse sharks and then we decided to switch gears.  Snook/redfish fishing was tough for us we caught one redfish and catfish every where we went.  Southwest wind and hard tides with the full moon made it not so great in all the areas where i’d been doing well recently.   Anyways at least the tarpon fishing was good for us!  1 for 3

6/19/19 – Wow what a day with Max and his girlfriend Ella! Max was after tarpon and hopefully a permit. He’d hooked some tarpon before but never got one to the hand so we hoped to change that. We ran out into the Backcountry and found some happy fish. Didn’t take long and Max was hooked up! He was a great angler and took instruction well, bowing to the king, not pulling too hard when the fish was going berserk, and applying pressure when the fish wasnt running hard. He ended up catching three! His girlfriend Ella also caught one which was awesome. After that we decided to see if we could find Max a permit. It was a bit rough but not too bad at all for the Contender Bay Boat. We found the water looking nice despite the southerly wind. As soon as we drifted in we saw a huge school of permit! We hooked one and Max landed his first Permit! After that they got a little tougher… Just staying deep and running, harder to see with the swells. We had a few more shots and did hook one more but a shark got it. After that we headed back towards home! What a day, it’s always great when you can fulfill somebodies fish wish, especially two of them!  4 for 4

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

Well another wet and rainy one today.  The morning was nice though.  Little bit of a southerly breeze but nothing too crazy.  I had Mark and his son Casey.  We were after tarpon and had just enough bait leftover that I figured we’d make the long run where I was going last week and just go for it.  Left early to catch the last of the falling tide.  One thing about this area, the tide change is very slow, so if you catch the slack tide you are going to be sitting and twiddling your thumbs for an hour or more.  We had a good 2 hours of tide thankfully with the early departure, that is one reason I’m big on being on time!  We saw more fish than I saw the few previous times I went last week, but they weren’t responding.  We had to move a few times, then finally got in the spot that felt right.  Soon Casey hooked a nice 75 lb tarpon that we fought for a bit and got boatside for some pictures!  Luckily we still had a little current, and dad hooked one but unfortunately he came off instantly.  Then the tide slowly quit.  We decided to look around for a bit while we waited for the current to change as we were limited on our bait supply.  Didn’t see much, and eventually the tide turned so we tried again.  Saw a handful of fish but nothing like before, but we gave it a good 30-40 minutes and didn’t get another bite.  We went to plan B but when we left I could tell things were getting nasty towards home.  The winds had kicked up a bit.  We caught a few redfish but the fish seemed shut down, I could hear snook popping but we never got a bite out of one.  Soon squalls got closer and it started blowing 35 mph and raining.  We called it a day and boogied toward home.  Made for an adventurous ride but thankfully the Contender boat could handle it, just got a little wet.  But all in all we made our day with a nice tarpon and a few redfish.  Back at it tomorrow… now the big question is where to get bait as it’s not easy to catch right now and it’s not quite consistently catchable in the summer time backcountry areas yet.  We’ll see what happens!  1 for 2

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

Got out with Mark, Kurt, and Doug today for Marks 50th birthday fishing trip!  Tarpon was the focus and we decided to leave early and head back into the everglades.  We found some fish early in one of the channels with the last trickle of falling tide.  They didn’t really respond though… but did get a good handful of sharks.  The tide quit and started to change, and we looked around and gave it one more whirl, but the body of fish seemed to have moved on at that point.  We then decided to run further into the backcountry and check the area where I’d been fishing a little more lately.  We didn’t see a whole lot there, but set up anyways.  After a bit we hooked up.  We ended up getting 3 fish there, no fast and furious rallies but putting time in and waiting 20-30 minutes between all the guys got to catch a silver king!  Such a beautiful setting up there too.  After that we had a little time left so we hit the gulf to look for permit.  There were a couple other boats already out on the spot, we trolled around and did get one good shot on the permit but unfortunately it was a tough one having to throw behind the boat and we didn’t get it in the right place.  Never saw them again.  Hoped to run a school over on the way home but no such luck.  Anyways still a great day.  Have the next couple days off though may go fun fishing tomorrow.  Be back at it Monday!  3 for 3

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