Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Alright another week down this one it got pretty windy again after we had a little over 2 weeks of almost all flat calm weather!  Monday it was ripping pretty good a steady 18 knots or so.  I had return customer Jon with me.  We fished the bridges and today it was a little slower.  Had slack tide first thing early in the AM though it was already starting to trickle in.  I did not mark many fish and that may of been because of the slack tide, sometimes they don’t really line up and are just kind of floating around when there’s no current.  Though we did start to find a few more in the middle of the bridge.  We set up and put in work.  Had to jump around a good bit for a couple of hours but eventually we got a bite.  It ran for for a good bit and we gave chase.  Fought it for 5 minutes or so but then we ended up pulling the hook unfortunately.  About an hour later we hooked another one and it made a few leaping jumps but it ran all the way around the bridge pilling and made one last huge jump and then went through our leader.  So tough break.  Those were the only for sure tarpon bites we had.  Day 2 I had Job and his buddy Cam.  We decided to make a far run into the backcountry which I hadn’t tried yet this year though last year I fished that area for a few weeks when things got tough around town.  Though we did not see a huge group of fish up there though thankfully we did find one group when we first got there.  Cam caught one straight away though after that they kind of broke up.  We checked a few other areas in that zone but did not see much.  We ended up coming back to where we started and just put some baits out without even seeing much and we did end up getting one more tarpon so that was nice.  We decided to run back towards home and tried a few other areas.  We did run into a huge school of snook which was pretty cool and we found those same snook in that same area last year so really interesting.  Job caught a huge one close to 20 lbs!  We did find a small school of tarpon in one other area but no bites out of them and we caught a few sharks.  Then Wednesday the winds laid down slightly though it was still blowing a good 15.  We found some tarpon around another bridge that I hadn’t been fishing as much lately and we hooked a couple right away and landed one.  Great way to start the day at least.  Once the tide quit we ran down to the big bridge and again put in a little work.  We ended up with a couple more bites down there and hooked a monster that Jack fought for an hour and we got near boatside but eventually went through the leader.  But a little more active day at least with 4 tarpon bites and we did get a goliath grouper and a couple of mutton snappers too.  Thursday I had Lee, Allen and Allens son Nate out.  We opted to go in the backcountry and had a decent day back there with reds, snook, drum, and jumped a small tarpon.  Friday they wanted to give the big tarpon a try and it was phenomenal fishing again!  We had falling tide most of the morning and the fish were biting.  We ended up getting 9 or 10 bites I think and we got a couple fish boatside but weren’t able to get any pictures unfortuantely.  And had several more we fought to the leader that jumped off or popped off.  But about as good as it gets which was nice to see as it was a little tougher earlier in the week.  Still plenty of fish around and I’m thinking it will stay strong into June here.  Capt. Luke fished a bit this week too and happy to report he’s landed tarpon on every trip he’s had so far, so what an awesome start for him!  He’s got days available and is offering evening trips too.  So if you want to get out last minute that’s a good option for you.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina

Well another busy week here fishing for tarpon this May in Islamorada, Florida.  It was great weather again we had a little overcast Monday with slight drizzle but with the low light conditions it made for superb tarpon fishing.  We had the bridges to ourselves not sure if the chance of rain had people spooked but it wasn’t too bad at all.  We ended up having a high hookup ratio and landed 5 fish and missed only one.  So great day with Casey and Davita.  The next day I had Casey, Nathan, and Wyatt and it was a nice sunny day slick calm.  Unfortunately a lot more fishing pressure too there were probably about 30 boats down there so word had gotten out!  Fishing was a little tougher we had to work at it we ended up catching one right off the bat which was nice but after that had to grind for a couple hours more for a bite.  Eventually we did get a couple more right near the tide change but they ended up breaking us off in the bridge straight away.  Once the tide fell we jumped around some more and had 3 more ‘short’ bites where the tarpon grabbed it and ran for a few seconds but never got the hook.  You can tell when the fish get finicky they’ll do that short bite thing more and likely because all the pressure.  But ample bites anyhow though we only capitalized on one of them.  Wednesday I had Zak, Nathan, and Wyatt and we had a little tougher day overall.  Had to really grind all day and it was work but we did end up catching a couple tarpon and possibly missed one or two more that zipped quick like we were talking about.  But got two boatside and good pictures of one for Nathan to finish the day.  Thursday and Friday I had Gary and Kim who fished with me several years ago.  We had great fishing both days!  Thursday it was a bit windy with some west wind kicking up pretty good but I figured a little change might not be a bad thing.  Sure enough we ended up getting some good bites in the morning, catching a couple tarpon and losing a couple others in the bridge.  We also had a couple other pick-ups we missed but not bad overall I think with 6 or 7 bites.  Then Friday we could do no wrong we ended up catching 5 tarpon and getting two up boatside for good pictures and leader released the others.  Kim was happy to battle a nice 90 lb tarpon for over an hour and got it to roll over for a nice picture.  What a battle and I tell people getting that picture is a whole other battle than simply getting the leader on one.  But good job!  So all in all a great week of fishing hopefully it’ll continue here a while longer.  I think it will as this year we had a late start with the late cold weather so hoping June will still be good fishing for us.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina

Been going hard at it and we’ve had another great week of fishing here in Islamorada for tarpon!  Monday and Tuesday I had Steve visiting from GA we fished locally for an hour or so whilst waiting for a little fresh bait.  We ended up hooking a nice fish in the channels that unfortunately got wrapped up funny on the motor as it was slack tide and going under the boat.  Got away but an exciting bite in the dark!  We got our bait and then headed to the bridges.  Caught the tide just changing and things were a little slow to start.  We jumped around for a couple hours giving it our best and once the tide started rolling they bit.  We caught a couple nice fish within an hour of each other, then had a couple back to back bites we missed one and got the last one.  Making for 3 fish on the day but unfortunately no picture takers or face grabs.  Tuesday I had the same guys and we decided to try the backcountry because I’d heard there was good fishing back there Monday and we were hoping to get hands on one which sometimes is easier back there as you can fish heavier gear often and also not worry about breaking them off in the bridges.  We didn’t see much early at all where the hot bite was the day before.  We checked some other spots and actually saw a ton of tarpon in one of them, though the little black tip sharks ate us alive and the tarpon really just did not want to bite.  But we had packs of 15-20 swimming by the boat lots of little guys in the 20 lb range.  We fished elsewhere and actually saw a handful of fish in two other areas we tried and I was sure we’d get bit but it never really happened for us.  Though we had plenty of shark action.  Oh well should’ve stuck to the bridges!  But at least we’d had some tarpon there the day before.  Wednesday back to the bridges we had good fishing with John and Bill landing 3 tarpon and hooking another 3 we missed or lost.  They kind of bit all through both tides and even had a bite on the slack tide.  People often ask what tide is best or want to time the tides, and I say truthfully it can be good on either or and even better on the slack tide sometimes!  And it changes day to day.  So it’s really impossible to time the ‘best tides’ for fishing for tarpon.  Though you’ll usually have an idea of it a few days out based on what happened the day before, but again it can change.  Thursday I had Keith and his wife Kristin visiting from the west coast.  Keith was here several years ago trying for tarpon with another guide and did not get one so it was on his bucket list.  Well we filled the bucket and then some today he landed 5 tarpon including a couple big girls.  No face grabs they were very much wanting to break us off today we had several fish doing figure 8s in the bridge, and making 180 u-turns under the boat.  But we got 5 of them up on the wind-on leader next to the boat but just couldn’t stop them for a picture.  Great fishing indeed!  Friday had Keith again and we whomped ’em again, getting leader on another 5 tarpon though again no face grabs.  We called it a day at 11:30 so got to come home a little early even and Keith was super stoked to have had two phenomenal days of fishing.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina