Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got out at the end of last month with my regular customer Rob Thomas and his buddies Rick and Carl.  Some bait has been around which is good news and I went and found it there again today (July 5) because I’m fishing tomorrow.  But last week we fished on the 28th and focused on tarpon in the backcountry.  Started out around Flamingo and got a nice fish in the first stop, about a 60 lber for Carl.  Saw a handful in the area too but after we caught the one it was more or less over with seemingly.  After that we ran out west and fished around the mainland beaches.  Didn’t visually see a whole lot but I ran to a general area I like to fish in the mid summer and sure enough we started marking a few fish on the sonar.  We set up soon after and sure enough we caught another one pretty quickly, about a 30 lber smaller fish.  Had several fish coming by us for about 20 minutes or so though we didn’t get another tarpon bite sitting there.  After that we moved around and could still see a handful of fish rolling here and there.  We moved a couple times and jumped one more fish.  Other than that it was not too bad with the sharks.  Sometimes the sharks can eat you alive but really we only hooked one about every 10-15 minutes.  After that we looked in one more area we didn’t have a whole lot of time but didn’t see much for tarpon but did catch a little bit of bait.  So all in all not bad it was good to see a decent body of fish and we had a handful of bites.  July should yield some decent fishing as mentioned there has been some bait around.  I’ll be taking a few trips short notice and Capt. Trentin and Capt. Brandon have some dates open too.  Capt. Brandon has been on the tarpon pretty good locally if you are interested in doing a half day.  Capt. Trentin is also still offering evening trips and the bait is close by locally so if you want to do that, the 4-8 PM window is often productive and I can about guarantee you’ll have it mostly to yourself which is always nice too.

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

So I got out with good return customers Jon & Jan this last week for a couple of days, Tuesday & Wednesday (yesterday and the day before).  On Tuesday we focused mostly on tarpon.  Bait was fairly easy to catch in the morning and we had a fair amount from a few days before so we loaded up with some extras.  We ran out into the backcountry where  I had been finding fish the last few trips.  Sure enough there were still a good group of fish out there, but unfortunately there was a fly fishing tournament going on and there were several boats on them first thing early in the morning.  We got lucky and set up a fair distance back and got one tarpon right away.  But as the day progressed the fish were moving with the tide and then more boats showed up so we had 5 or 6 guys trying to fly fish the group of fish.  Unfortunately for us bait fisherman it’s bad ettiquette to run in there in the midst of that.  Although there we of course fish in a fairly big area, the real concentration you wanted to get in was not all that big plus the little sharks were very bad if you got in the wrong spot, and with the fly guys around you can’t get within a football field of them or cut them off so we tried to be polite and not enroach to close which we did.  But we only ended up with that 1 bite and by 10:00 or so it seemed kinda over with and everyone left.  We tried a few spots of big snook and another area for tarpon but no luck.  But still a nice tarpon on the day and a big lemon shark and hammerhead shark, plus plenty of black tips.  I’m pretty sure we could’ve had more action if we could’ve fished where wanted but that’s not always the case.

Yesterday we had a total swing around in the wind direction, it went from northeasterly to southwesterly.  Luckily we loaded up with extra bait the day before because with the wind switch, the bait was gone today!  That’s why we often catch bait back there even when we don’t necessarily ‘need’ it for the day, because you never know when you aren’t gonna find it!  With the wind that direction, the fly fisherman were not in the same area as it gets a little rough and they don’t see the fish on the surface as much when you get those rolling waves.  Though fishing was not all that great we never had a tarpon bite early we did mark a few good schools of fish and got set up in good position but no love just sharks.  We gave it an hour and a half or so and then switched gears and went snook fishing.  Snook fishing was really good and all we had for bait was small shrimp and a few pinfish, so we didn’t need to catch special bait but we still ended up with close to 20 snook, and had a nice redfish that got eaten by a shark, and had a few baby tarpon eat the shrimp as well that we jumped off.

So that’s hopefully a good sign and one of the nice things about backcountry fishing sometimes there are good options if the tarpon don’t cooperate.  But as mentioned previously there has been a fair amount of bait around and tarpon around for the time of year it is back there and July may yield some good fishing for us it’s often a good month but you don’t know until it gets hear.  But I’ll be taking some trips in July more short notice so if you plan on being in the area drop me a line!

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

Got out today with my good customers the Thompsons.  We fished the backcountry as last time we were out we had found a decent number of fish back there and it’s that time of year that sometimes its nice to transition to backcountry fishing as opposed to the bridges.  It’s remained fairly calm though we had a little tad bit of a southerly breeze which isn’t our favorite but luckily it wasn’t blowing hard.  Tarpon were actually fairly plentiful early on we saw some rolling and a handful free jumping and busting.  We got into them pretty good and I was seeing quite a few on the sonar as well as with my eyes.  I thought we’d get bit up but the tarpon weren’t too responsive really.  We jumped around and fished hard for 2 hours catching plenty of sharks including a few hammerheads which was cool.  We had several times where I marked fish literally swimming right near our baits, and even rolled on the surface right over top.  If you were a betting man that was the time you’d bet on getting a bite for sure!  But they just weren’t having it.  Finally after moving 6 or 7 times and putting in a good solid couple of hours we hooked a fish.  We fought him for a minute or two but unfortunately he jumped off, though the next bait out we hooked another one and landed him… alright on the board!  Tarpon fishing can be like that you can have fish all over and when they don’t want to play you just have to keep grinding.  After that we switched gears and gave the big snook a try and ended up actually catching a couple more tarpon while we were doing that which was unexpected.  But nice smaller size fish on the lighter tackle was great fun and we also got a couple of big snook too.  So all in all a great day and quality over quantity but totally worth it for my guys!

Capt. Stephen has been fishing with me several times out back recently and I’ve been dialing him in on my tarpon routine for the summer time.  I’m pretty much all booked up myself for June but he has dates available for sure.  If you want to get out chasing tarpon the next few months give me a shout and if I can’t take you I can put you with him and as mentioned he’s been seeing exactly how I fish and really learning my methods so you’ll be in great hands.

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