Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got out with Graham and his dad Paul today for the last of their 3 days.  We headed out early and found some fish a little closer to where we were yesterday which was nice.  But they weren’t biting super great though a little better than yesterday.  Unfortunately we had a lot of catfish and sharks to deal with too.  But we did manage three bites and got one fish to the leader before he jumped off for a technical catch.  After 9:00 or so the tarpon seemed to thin out though we did keep seeing a handful.  We looked around in several other areas while waiting on the tide to change, and didn’t see any elsewhere.  Hopefully more show up soon but at least it was good to see a good number this AM and glad to have gotten one.  We did catch several big lemon sharks, a big bull shark, a couple monster blacktips, and several smaller sharks as well so there was steady action all day long.  Back at it tomorrow the winds look to be light so will probably try the same routine again.  Then we have some west wind coming this week don’t think that will help what has already been a little bit of a tough time.  1 for 3

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

5/31/18 – Got out with Allen and Paul today for the 1st of 3 days trip.  We gave tarpon a try early on, had one boil on a live bait and a pick up on another bait but dropped it quickly.  But that was it.  We decided to mix things up for the rest of the day and had good action with snapper, trout, and mackerel, and caught some sharks later in the day and finished up with a nice sawfish!  0 for 1

6/1/18 – Had Allen and Graham today of the same group though the guys mixed up the crew some today.  We ran deep into the glades and did get a tarpon early on.  We saw quite a few fish and I thought we’d get a few more bites, but they were pretty finicky!  But glad to be back on the board getting one.  We caught  a variety of sharks as well, and then on the way home we saw a few tarpon in one of the channels in the backcountry which was good to see.  Hopefully some more will be moving in.  We have several days of west wind coming up after tomorrow so that may make the fishing a little screwy again.  1 for 1

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

Got out with Nick today for a full day of fishing.  I told him the tarpon bite had been very slow so he was good with mixing things up a little bit thankfully. We tried for tarpon early without any luck didn’t even see any fish.  We then mixed it up with our light tackle tried for a bonefish for a little bit with no luck, but then went into the bay and had very good action for snapper, trout, mackerel, and big ladyfish.  Nice to bend the rod and get some stuff to eat!  We checked a few backcountry channels after that and just absolutely no life whatsoever again, not even a shark bite!  Unbelievable really.  We ran back towards home and got a little more fresh bait and tried by the bridges where I had seen a few tarpon yesterday.  Didn’t see any today though did hear a report that one had been caught there.  We gave it some time and did catch a shark, but never saw a tarpon.  Though one boat did hook one as we were leaving in the general vicinity.  Anyways there are a very small handful of fish around, hopefully after this full moon we will get another push of fish.  If you are fishing down here now, it definitely is advisable to be flexible with what you are targeting!  0 for 0