Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got out with John and Tom today for a full day of fishing in the everglades.  We did a mixed bag trip as I’ve been doing often as of late.  But tarpon were one of the fish in the mixed bag.  I told them fishing for them had not been great, but there had been a few around with the warmer-than-usual conditions.  We had a good day overall catching a variety of things… plenty of sharks, some snook, some redfish, and limit of nice mangrove snappers.  But we did get one shot at a tarpon today too!  Unfortunately he did not stay on the hook for us we jumped him off straight away.  But the fish were still in the same area they had been the last week or so.  Did not see quite as many today as yesterday, but we did get a bite and yesterday we did not.  Anyways I’d been on a good streak of catching them lately so was due to miss one eventually.  Looks like it’ll be getting into the 60s tonight, and then slowly getting colder throughout week, with it possibly getting into the 50s by early next week.  That will likely shut the tarpon down for a while which is normally what happens in the winter time.  But we should still have plenty of good fishing for our usual cooler weather species such as redfish, drum, snook, mackerel, and more.  Be sure to check out my other website fishingislamorada.com for my daily updated reports while I am not tarpon fishing.  I’ll check back whenever I do some more fishing for the silver king in Islamorada!  0 for 1

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

Gave the tarpon a try again today but definitely not our main quarry.  I had John and his son Andrew out and they wanted to try for a mixed bag.  We started out in the gulf with the spanish mackerel, that fishing was really good and all the action you could want.  It was a bit windy but not too bad for my boat.  The wind was howling north early and we then proceeded to the tarpon grounds after we finished up with the macks.  Tarpon were there for sure, we set up and put our gear out and fished hard.  No tarpon bites though but plenty of sharks.  The tide quit after about an hour and we decided to mix it up more and caught some triple tails, and got a really nice redfish in another spot for Andrew which was cool.  The wind had slicked off before this which was great as triple tail fishing isn’t very fun when it’s blowing 20 out of the north here.  We ran hard back to the tarpon grounds after that with the tide falling now and the wind having swung back to the southeast.  Didn’t see as much tarpon activity but we did see a few bust and set up in a spot.  Again though no more bites but we did get a big 100 lb blacktip for Andrew which was a great fight very similar to a big tarpon!  After that we called it a day and headed home, the boys were glad though they caught a bunch of fish and many different kinds.  A buddy of mine dedicated his whole day to tarpon in that same area, they did catch one and had another one on I know, so you really just gotta put your time in and a little bit of luck helps too.  But tomorrow night it’s suppose to drop back into the mid 60s and get slightly colder each night throughout t he weekend.   That’ll likely put the tarpon off for a while, as they aren’t super happy right now anyhow.  So it may be it for the year for me though I’ll likely give it a shot tomorrow if my customers would like to.  0 for 0

Got out with Rich and Luke Cromwell today.  We had a banner day catching all kinds of stuff including snook, triple tail, trout, cobia, and of course tarpon!  Figured it might be a little better today as the water was warmer and the winds were lighter and more out of the east.  We didn’t give it a shot until later in the day as I knew early on we’d have lame tide with a weak incoming.  We got their and found the tarpon still in the same area.  It wasn’t really easy we had to work at it and make several moves.  But after about 1.5 hours we finally fooled a nice 90 lb tarpon!  Luke fought him well and the silver king put on a good shot for us.  Lots of jumping and hard fighting.  We got him boatside after about a 30 minute battle, and he cooperated for nice pictures!  All in all a great day for Luke and his dad hopefully the fish will be as cooperative tomorrow.  Looks like we may get a couple more days of it staying just warm enough for a realistic shot at catching tarpon in december.  Friday night though another cold front back down in the 60s, and then it will get even colder the next several nights.  So that may be all she wrote for tarpon in our area until next year!  Will keep you all posted.  1 for 1

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