Well got back to it this past week here tarpon fishing in Islamorada! We were away for Spring Break the week before but Tuesday the 24th was my first day back on the grind. I had Thomas and Eric out who fished with me previously a few years ago. The weather looked pretty good the winds had calmed down a lot. While I was gone the week before we had another late cold front which made fishing very tough from what I heard. It didn’t get super cold but back into the low 60s and some heavy winds for a few days blowing 25. However over the weekend before we fished it calmed down so we had a few days for it to warm up and get nice. Fishing was good for us we found a fair amount of tarpon where they’d been a couple weeks previously, though not the gigantic school that was out there before. It took a minute to really get on them but we did. We had a bite within the first 10 minutes and jumped it off, then about 20 minutes later had another that we caught! Unfortunately a shark started chasing it so we got it up boatside and got a little video and popped her off so the fish could have a chance to survive. After that the tarpon scattered so we moved around a bit and eventually got on them again. We had 3 more bites I believe and ended up landing one more fish but same thing after about 30-40 minutes a shark chased it and the boys were happy to break it off again to let the fish survive. Wednesday fishing was very similar I think we had 5 bites throughout the day but we did get a nice fish to the hand for a great picture! This was with Nick Martin and crew we had a lot of fun with his boys. Yesterday fishing got a little tougher for us but we still had some fun. I had Sam and John visiting from Texas. The boys were throwing artificials while we were fishing our baits and Sam had a big 100 lber eat in the first 20 minutes that almost pulled the rod out of his hand! Didn’t stay on there but it was very exciting. After that we saw plenty of fish but they were just not being cooperative for us. We moved a good 7 or 8 times and then finally in the last 30 minutes of our trip we hooked a nice one that John caught. But as happened a few days ago a shark got after it but we got some good video of some jumps and near boat side action. And at least got one for the day.
Looks like the wind is picking up this coming week so things may change a little but hopefully won’t be too bad. The backcountry tarpon fishing may be nearing an end here as mentioned the numbers of fish back there are thinning out and typically in April they start making there way here and load up around the channels, shorelines, and bridges of the keys. We’ll see how this year goes as it’s always a little different where and when. I do still have a few April days open one next week (Thursday) and then a couple in mid-April and a couple at the end of April. Shoot me a message if you want to get out. I’ve also opened myself up for June – the 2nd week of June is all booked up but I have the whole first and third week open if you want to jump on that for an early summer tarpon trip!
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina
