July 2019

Fantastic day with return customers Chris and his son Thiago. Winds were kicking a bit for this time of year, and looks like that’ll continue for a bit into next week. At least it was more southeasterly instead of the West wind we had last week. We found some tarpon early on where we first stopped which was nice. Had to move around to get lined up right, but soon Chris caught a nice 40 lber. Thiago got the next one about a 65 lber! A few blacktips and a nurse shark after that. As the tide quit, we jumped 1 more tarpon that came at us on the bite. Always harder to hook when they do that. We went for a ride after that since the tide was slacking. Checked a few other area but didn’t see a whole lot to get excited about. We went tripletailing after that. Saw a decent amount and caught a nice 10 lber to start! A couple other small ones, and the rest were very Leary about eating bait! They were looking at it but not committing. We saw a few more tarpon as we were looking so we gave that another whirl. Soon Thiago had another nice one on about a 70 lber that we landed. A bit later Chris got another good one about 60 lbs, we got the leader on and he got under the boat though. Quite a few more tripletails going by during that we had enough time to catch a couple more as they got happier. Did see about a 15 lber that didnt want to eat but got us very excited! After that called it a day. So great fishing hopefully the tarpon stick around a bit longer.  4 for 6

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

Great day with Brandon and his wife Gosia visiting from Canada! They were after tarpon and didn’t mind mixing it up a little either. I told them that wouldn’t be a bad idea, as the tarpon had been a little hit and miss lately. We started looking for bait, which took a bit but we got into a good area and caught what we needed eventually. We looked for tarpon in a couple spots and didn’t see much. I decided to look elsewhere, where I thought I had seen some tarpon activity the day before but wasn’t 💯sure of. Anyways we got there and sure enough saw some signs of life. We set up and soon Gosia had a nice 50 lb tarpon on! She fought him well and we got some good pics. We lined up on a other fish and it was Brandon’s turn. He got a 35 lber to the hand! We had one more zip is that we missed, and then caught a couple sharks. Weather started to build and get near, but soon broke up and it was nice afterwards staying overcast for a while. We then found some redfish and had fun with them, and Gosia got a snook for a Backcountry slam! We finished the day chasing tripletail again, and caught quite a few I think 10 or so. Headed home after that, nice productive day and always lovely when everything you try works and things just click. Hasn’t been so easy lately especially with the poons, but that’s fishing! Last couple days I fished we did not target tarpon, but had plenty of reds, tripletails, and big lemon sharks.  2 for 2

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

Well got back out on the water today after being gone for the 4th/holiday weekend.  I spoke to a buddy who said he had a day of very good fishing but then was dealing with a lot of weather and lightning storms, which pushed a big body of fish out and since then he was struggling a bit but still finding a few fish.  Today we caught bait early on and it was fair, little easier to get bait on the morning incoming tides right now which we have for a few more days.  We checked some areas where we found tarpon before I left.  First stop we didn’t see much but did see a few on our electronics, but no bite and the sharks started to get bad as the tide was slowing down.  We decided to run further to an area where I was doing well last week too.  This spot has been consistent for me the last two weeks, hasn’t always been a ton of fish and sometimes you really hardly see anything, but it’s been good for a bite or two, or sometimes more than that.  Anyways we came in and did see a few fish on the electronics again.  Set up and we caught the start of the falling tide.  A few sharks, but then we had a tarpon bite we missed.  Dang!  Put them back out and had a few more sharks, then we got a nice 35 lb tarpon to stick that we got to the hand.  After that we were considering moving, but eventually saw one more tarpon roll and decided to give it some more time.  More sharks including a hammerhead which was cool, then we hooked a nice 65 lb tarpon!  This one gave us a good battle and we fought him for 45 minutes or so.  Got him on the leader to the boat several times, but couldn’t quite get him all the way rolled over for a pic before going through the leader.  But a good catch none the less.  After that we decided to move on, but the weather was moving in with some thunderstorms building.  We decided to just head on in before the weather got too bad, as the wind was picking up and it just looked like it was going to be struggle from there on out.  Anyways I have the same crew tomorrow, David from Scotland.  Will give it a try again we may make a long run up the coast who knows.  2 for 3

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