Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Well I had my first official tarpon trip of the year – success!  We caught a couple nice size tarpons in the backcountry this morning.  I caught plenty of mullet yesterday and we had to hit a few spots but find a few hungry ones.  We did see tarpon in most the channels we fished, but they were not really active or feeding well.  The water temp was still in the low 70s, a little on the chilly side but fish are definitely starting to show up.  Plenty were spotted in the middle of the bay as well which means our local channels and bridges should load up with fish too.  We did some scouting last night right nearby the marina and we did not have any luck, and did not see much for fish rolling either.  I’ve heard there have been some further down by the bigger bridges.  If the weather stays nice and warm like it is, you can expect to have shots at catching tarpon this time of year.  If your looking to do some tarpon fishing, give me a call or shoot me an email.  Early season fishing can be very good!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Haven’t posted in a while and that is because it is winter time now and we are not doing much tarpon fishing.  Though we did happen to catch a baby tarpon today so figured I’d mention it!  We were fishing for snook around the flamingo area casting pilchards, which the snook fishing has been very good for the most part.  Occasional redfish mixed in too.  Anyhow around one of the island moats we landed a small 10 lb baby tarpon.  I had been seeing a handful while ‘fun fishing’ deeper in the everglades in some of the creeks and such, though I am usually just fishing for snook and redfish back there when I’m out myelf for fun, so I don’t really mess with them.  Anyways it is possible to catch them when the weather is warm in the winter – I usually recommend fishing for other fish with the idea that if we see some around we may give it a try.  The normal december everglades fishery is snook, redfish, black drum, sheepshead, trout, and a few other fish.  Also the gulf fishing for mackerel, cobia, goliath grouper, can tripletail can be good when calm!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Well the weather was nice today and looks to be tomorrow as well.  November tarpon fishing in islamorada can still be possible with these conditions!  No major cold fronts yet and the mild northerly winds have pushed lots of bait down the coast.  We commonly refer to this as the ‘fall bait run.’  Lots of black mullet mostly.  Tarpon around the mainland really go nuts on these guys, today for instance there were literally rivers of mullet with tarpon busting them from 20 to close to 200 lbs!  We had to wait for the incoming tide before bait was really catchable.  But we made a throw of the net and had a load of bait.  Tarpon were all off the beaches as well as in the canals – slick calm conditions which they like!  We fished for an hour this afternoon for them and caught 2 nice tarpon.  The fresh black mullets did the trick.  We are suppose to be getting some cooler weather and once the temperatures really drop that is usually it for most the tarpon fishing I do until the spring, but other great options are possible fishing the florida keys in november.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

November Islamorada Tarpon