Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got out for Day 2 with Ron and Charlie today.  We opted to do the early morning deep run again.  The forecast was a little nastier, but it was a pleasant ride back and we didn’t get any weather while we were back there thankfully.  Not quite as many tarpon as yesterday but we did find an area with some there.  Mostly smaller guys.  We did not get a bite at our first stop, we did have some fish rolling around our baits.  I did get a little nervous as it’s usually been easy to get bit right away.  Anyways after some time we moved around, and gave it a bit longer.  We finally did jump a fish that just didn’t stay on the hooks.  After that we moved again and then Ron caught one so that was good.  We moved again after that and then the tide changed for us.  Then we had a good little rally where we had 4 bites in about a 40 minute window.  Charlie had one on for a few minutes that jumped and threw the hook.  We likely could’ve chased him down for a ‘technical’ release but it wasn’t a big guy so I was hoping we’d get another one while we waited.  Luckily we did get a few more bites and he landed one and we missed a couple more on the hookup.  After that then they seemed to kind of disappear.  We reloaded on our bait fish and tried a bit more before we headed out.  We hooked a monster bull shark that was about 300 lbs, we got a decent glimpse of him before he broke off.  So anyways great fishing again and funny how it changes.  We started off sweating it a little bit, but ended up getting more bites then I’ve had in the last three weeks or so.  I think we will be back there again tomorrow unless we have a weather issue, most other reports locally and in the backcountry haven’t been great.  2 for 6

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

P.S. We normally do not pick tarpon up out of the water, however smaller fish like these that are under 40 inches you are allowed to remove for a picture.  We always try to make sure that we don’t drop them, wipe off any slime or drag them on the deck, and revive them somewhat so they kick off healthily.

Got out with Ron and Charlie today for day 1 of 3.  The boys are down from NC and wanted to try and catch the silver king.   I told them fishing had been tough and we might be best served to leave real early and try the deep ‘glades run as we had luck with that yesterday.  They were up for it so away we went.  Had a nice calm day with no funky west wind or anything so perfect conditions.  Found a good load of fish, more then i’ve seen in the last few trips back there.  Great to see!  We set up and soon Charlie hooked up a nice 25 lber.  We landed him from the dead boat and kept on fishing.  Ron was up next and hooked a big 80 lb fish that just tore off like crazy.  He almost went under the boat but lucikly swam around it so he didn’t cut us off.  We had to chase him and he just kept going and going but we caught up.  Great fish with some great jumps.  After that a few more boats showed up but there was plenty of room.  We set back up and Charlie got one more fish about a 40 lber.  After that we moved around a bit and the tarpon seemed to thin out.  We caught a big sting ray and a small shark, and then that was all she wrote seemingly.  Anyways well worth the early rising, and nice to put multiple fish to the boat on day 1 that really takes the pressure off me!  We finished the day checking a couple other spots but didn’t see much, but we did catch a few trout for dinner on the way home.  Will be sticking to the same routine tomorrow the boys are good for it again, hopefully it’ll be more of the same.  The handful of other guys I talked to who fished other areas didn’t do a whole lot, hopefully that gets better soon for us.  3 for 3

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

6/10/18 – I had Carl and his son Ben out for two days of tarpon fishing.  I told them it had been a little slow lately and they were good with mixing it up some.  Sometimes this is good just for the captains state of mind, of course I will always give it 100% for the tarpon and everything else, but when it’s just not happening it’s nice to just put some fish in the boat to take the stress off a little bit and know other options are available.  So we headed out early and we did happen across a good school of tarpon in one of the channels.  More then I’ve seen in weeks!  I was excited!  But unfortunately they did not respond for us, many of the fish were up shallow eating small shrimp and things, though there were some in the deeper channel.  I hoped when the tide started rolling in they’d fire up but they did not.  Funny because I had only seen a handful of fish here the last two times, and we did catch one both of those times.  Today there were dozens of them and couldn’t get a bite.  So goes fishing.  We did catch some sharks, and then got into a good trout bite while catching some other bait fish.  We then tried for some tarpon more, but still no luck but did get a big lemon shark and a hammerhead shark.  We checked another channel and saw a few tarpon but they didn’t want to play.  We did catch a few tripletails while sitting there though which was fun.  Then finished up the day getting a nice snook for Carl.  Anyways still a great day overall though we did not get our target fish.  Much better then trying for a tarpon all day waiting for 1 possible bite and maybe not getting it.  0 for 0

6/11/18 – Today we left super early and ran deep into the everglades.  I figured we’d give it an all or nothing shot.  I’ve been finding some fish way back there but it seems to be just an early morning thing as to when they are biting.  We got there and the fish were there.  A bit of weather around but it didn’t bother us much.  We hooked up pretty quickly and Carl got a nice 50 lb fish!  After that he jumped another one off.  Then it was Bens turn and got a nice 50 lb fish or so too!  This one dragged us up into a creek and it was a very cool battle with pretty scenery.  After that we set back up and we jumped one more fish, and then that was it.  Over with by 9 AM or so with the tarpon bite.  They were still there just not feeding any longer.  The sharks started in though we caught several big lemon sharks and some big blacktips which was fun.  We caught a bit more bait and then checked a couple areas on the way home, didn’t see any tarpon in them but did catch a couple more sharks.  Then we headed home.  Got some rain on the way but well worth the price of admission.  Carl was thrilled to have gotten a tarpon and one for Ben too.  Back at it tomorrow.  2 for 4

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