Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Wind kicked up a bit today.  It was blowing 10 knots out of the southwest.  We tarpon fished around town in the morning.  I had caught some live mullet the night before that we penned up, they stayed pretty healthy.  The tide was coming in and I fished an area I had done well before the last front we had with a similar condition – westerly wind and incoming tide.  The fish were there again and we did well.  We caught 3 out of 8 tarpon on both live and dead bait.  This was in the first 3 hours of the day, pretty good fishing.  After that we went out to the patch reefs and caught dinner, hogfish and snappers!  Tried for tarpon again later in the day down by channel 2, had one mystery fish zip the line pretty good.  Then came back near the marina and not much action there, though a boat that was anchored 100 yard from us was fighting one when we got there and hooked another.  The march islamorada tarpon fishing may get a little slower as the temperature is going to drop a bit, suppose to blow 20+ mph tomorrow and get in the low 60s.  But should only last a day or so.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Gorgeous day today.  Flat calm in the morning.  Running in the bay we ran over a good school of mullet.  With my trolling motor and cast net we loaded up on bait pretty quick.  Ran back near islamorada bridges where there had been some fish.  Last of the incoming tide we had 3 bites, caught 1 on live, 1 on dead, and jumped another one off.  As soon as tide turned and wind picked up a bit though the fish stopped rolling and showing.  They did not feed really the rest of the day on the falling water, very weak tide with not much current, only last 4 hours or so…  Best bet I think the next couple days is fishing the morning incoming tide around town!  Anyways caught 2 nice fish plus some sharks to finish up.  Yesterday we tried some tarpon fishing in the backcountry and around town… no bites we did not really see much for fish in the back, though around town in the afternoon we did see a good big group.  But they didn’t want to feed, though this morning that is the same place we fished and it was a different story!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Had a half day morning tarpon trip this AM.  Looked for bait but it was very tough, after the cold front a few days ago the mullet haven’t been thick in the usual morning spots.  We had plenty from a couple days ago still though and a friend gave me a few livies he caught the afternoon before.  We fished the local channels and action was slow, saw a handful of fish roll and stuck it out.  After an hour or so we hooked up what seemed to be a tarpon.  No jumps but it ran drag out like a big tarpon not a shark.  We gave chase and unfortunately had my spinning gear fail, the drag completely locked up with no previous indication it was faulty and I had just serviced them a couple months ago.  Bummer but that happens when you pull on as many big things as we do with the drags locked down!  Anyways we regrouped and set back up (minus that rod of course), after another 45 minutes we hooked a big tarpon that went airborne immediately!  We chased him and after a 30 minute battle had a nice 110 lb tarpon boatside!  Biggest I’ve seen lately.  A good end to the morning I was very glad to get a fish after the unfortunate mishap.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk