Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got after some tarpon today after the ‘big chill’ a few days ago.  Temperatures plummeted back into the high 50s for one night and that really put a damper on our tarpon fishing right as things had started to get good.  Anyways luckily it was just a one night deal and things have slowly started to warm back up, however with the high kickin’ winds it’s been a slow process.  Yesterday we were able to catch some bait in the afternoon after a half day trip.  I used it today we tried fishing the bridges which I’ve had some luck on when things are on the chillier side.  Today however no luck there we had some nervous baits jumping around but nothing wanted to try and really eat them.  We even ran down the road towards the bigger bridges near marathon though there wasn’t much life there that i could see.  Of course with the high winds and ripping current it was tough to see anything that may of been laying on the bottom.  Anyways we bailed and went and caught some mackerels then gave the tarpon a try again on the way home.  We got in one of the local channels where I’d been finding them and right after all was looking glum we ended up hooking and landing a nice 50 lb fish right as the incoming tide was dying!  We decided to call it a day there so it was a good way to end it.  Fishing should improve slightly the coming week, however I do hear we have another front on the way (ugh!), though so far it looks to be much more mild so hopefully it won’t affect things to much.  And a good chance it may fizzle out altogether (i hope so!)  1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

3/19/16 – Today winds kicked up substantially out of the southwest, not a great condition for our tarpon fishery.  We ran out into the backcountry where the tarpon had been swarming the last few days, and saw a few around when we got there.  We jumped one fish on the last of the falling tide and that was about it for tarpon action for the day for us.  We switched channels when the tide turned, though their were already a couple boats there before us.  It was frustrating because we did see one boat catch several tarpon, though if you weren’t sitting on that exact spot you weren’t getting a bite.  We made a few moves and caught several sharks, then ended up doing some rod bending with ladyfish and a few trout.  Unfortunately the channels out there and bay turned into a complete mudhole making for tough fishing.  0 for 1

3/20/16 – Today tarpon was the main target we caught some bait early and made our way into the backcountry to try the channels back there again.  Winds were still howling out of the southwest with the cold front coming in later this evening.  We ran to where we saw some fish caught the previous day, however no such luck today.  We caught several sharks, and when the tide quit the mullet swarmed in the channels.  We took a little time to stock up on fresh bait then we tried some different channels.  Nothing but sharks though we got a little variety with a couple big nurses among the other blacktips, we did see some tarpon roll in one area and got on top of them and gave it a good 45 minutes, but no response unfortunately.  We ended up running back around town to try live baiting the local channels.  We didn’t see any tarpon there either, but we did catch a big jack crevelle, and some various sharks too.  0 for 0

Looks like tonight and tomorrow will be dropping into the 60s, and even high 50s monday night.  It will likely be too cold to mess with tarpon fishing so I will likely be recommending my anglers to fish for other things.  But time will tell hopefully by next weekend things will get somewhat back to normal, I’m ready for some consistent nice weather and steady tarpon action!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Back on the tarpon today it was a gorgeous day with winds light out of the southeast.  By the time we got into the backcountry it slicked out and was flat calm.  Thankfully it was nice and overcast.  We fished where we found the tarpon yesterday and they were still there.  We watched several roll around the entire time.  First bait out we hooked a fish within 5 minutes and we got him to the leader but he came off before we got any real good pictures.  After that we caught a few sharks and after about an hour we hooked another tarpon.  Same size fish they were both around 50 lbs and we got some good shots of this one and released him unharmed.  After that things slowed down and we caught a couple more sharks including a 100 lb bull shark which was cool.  Then around 10:30 we hooked a big 120 lb fish and we fought him for a good half hour.  He put on quite a show and didn’t want to quit but we got him leadered and got some good boatside shots and released him as well.  They weren’t pulling you out of the boat like you’d expect them to with the conditions we had, but catching 3 tarpon in a day is plenty fine with me!  After that we went triple tail fishing and caught a few for dinner, including a 13 lber which was a beast!  Honestly I was more excited about him than the tarpon we don’t see many over 10 lbs this days so it was a treat.  Luckily the sharks weren’t too bad while tarpon fishing nor was the ‘red grass’ that often makes fishing very difficult in this area this time of year.  Tomorrow I’ll likely be doing some tarpon fishing and then sunday the front is coming in.  They are calling for some rain and sunday night it’s gonna drop down into the low 60s, so may not be doing any tarpon fishing for a few days after that – we will see what happens!  3 for 3