Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got out for a full day today.  Not great conditions a little southwest breeze in the morning that faded to nothing later.  However it had been blowing hard west the last few days and the backcountry water was all kinda of mixed up.  We were hoping to do some snook and redfish fishing however back at cape sable the water was super dirty and with the crazy tides the water was already fairly high when we got there and bait was all spread out and tough to catch.  We tried fishing shrimp a little but no luck and the bugs swarmed us so we switched gears.  We did some jigging and caught some ladyfish which we saved for bait.  We ended up finding some tarpon in one of the flamingo channels and we got a couple bites.  Jumped a nice 30 lb fish off and then landed this nice 40-50 lber.  We also got a few shark bites and landed a nice blacktip.  Great way to end the day with plan B.  I’ve got a little stretch of a week of fishing days book here mid october which is nice.  I’ve been enjoying some time off.  But fishing should be getting good hopefully a little more north easterly wind will clean the water up and start the bait run up again.  1 for 2

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Haven’t updated in a while though I have not really been fishing much for tarpon lately.  I have gotten out a few days, some half days in the bays fishing for snapper.  That has been good action with some nice size mangrove snappers on cut bait.  We’ve also had a few good days snook fishing in the everglades and the bait run is continuing to push some big bait schools back there, leading to good fishing.  Today we ended up catching a tarpon at the end of the day, not really fishing for them but we stopped in a spot that i see some juveniles in once in a while.  We got lucky and hooked and caught a 20 lber, then jumped another one off.  Using live pilchards for bait.  Anyways it was a little rough to go look out off the beaches but I heard there had been some tarpon out there busting the big bait schools that are starting to show up.  Mid October is a good time for that sometimes, and it is right around the corner. 1 for 2

Got out today again for an all day trip.  Bait was pretty easy lots of big giant silver mullets on the last of the incoming tide in the backcountry.  We tried the channels near flamingo and saw a few fish rolling when we set up.  Unfortunately they were not very active in feeding we did have lots of shark action and after 45 minutes or so while fighting a big shark we had about 100 lb tarpon grab a bait, run for 5 seconds, jump, and throw the hook.  That was our only bite we moved up the channel and things died down as far as the shark action, saw a couple tarpon roll and thought we’d get another shot but it never happened as the tide died.  I ran out west off the beaches to look around and we tried a couple areas and had more good shark action, but no signs of tarpon out there.  Anyways we decided to switch gears and ran in to the creeks to snook fish and had a stellar last couple hours, catching close to 20 snook!  Their was tons of bait in the canals, big and little finger mullet.  I think this is the first signs of the ‘fall bait run’ and if we continue having some northerly breezes we should get some epic conditions for a few weeks.  This can go on all the way through October.  0 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk