Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got out with Trevor, Chad, and Gary today for a 3/4 day trip.  We left out early.  Had bait stashed away from a few days ago.  With the falling tides in the morning, bait is very difficult to get.  Luckily I was able to stash enough away for this trip and my trip tomorrow, then I won’t be fishing again until the weekend when the tidal situation should be more favorable for catching bait early.  We found some fish early on where they had been lately.  But acting very strange, I don’t think we ever even saw one roll but I could see them on the electronics.  We fished a few spots and kept moving trying to get in front of the right ones.  We did run one over that jumped out of the water, so absolutely sure they were there.  But no bites just some sharks and bluefish.  We went to another area with the last of the tide, and sure enough found a good pack of small tarpon in there.  We set up and it was fast and furious for a bit.  Trevor ended up landing one fish and getting another on the leader before it jumped off, and jumped off a 3rd fish straight from the get go.  Gary caught one as well.  All in a good 20 minute rally.  After that things died off.  We ran and checked one more area a ways away, where I had caught my last fish a couple days ago.  Saw a boat hooked up when we pulled in, but we didn’t see a whole ton of tarpon.  Just a handful here and there.  We set up, but the sharks were thick and hard to get through.  Caught a bunch of blacktip sharks, and then called it a morning.  But not bad with 3 tarpon overall!  Back at it tomorrow not sure what we are doing.  3 for 4

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

Got out with Michael and his son Preston again. We were after a tarpon. Found a decent group of fish early where they were a couple days ago, but today unfortunately we had about 30 minutes of tide and then things went slack. That can be tough this time of year as your good bite window is often first thing, but you have to work with the hand you are dealt. Anyways we caught a few sharks and waited out the tide change which was quick, but the fish seemed to spread out and didn‘t look so good after that. So we bailed and fished elsewhere. Found some more fish in spot 2, and did manage to jump 1 there that didn’t stay on the hook. Plenty of bigger sharks here too. Eventually they kinda stopped showing there too and we checked a final area that I hadn’t been too in a while. Low and behold we found a good pack of fish here, and after several blacktip sharks and a couple moves we finally hooked up! Nice 50 lb fish that fought well, and soon Preston had his first tarpon to the hand. There are definitely still tarpon around and the possibility of good fishing is there for a couple more months. But right now you really seem to have to commit to it to have a good shot, as we are working hard to get a bite or two a day. Off tomorrow then fun fishing on Monday.  1 for 2

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

Had Michael, Preston, and Rebecca out for a 3/4 day. Rebecca or Preston had never caught a tarpon. I told the crew it’s been a little hit and miss lately for the poons, unfortunately no honey holes i had extreme confidence in but I was game to give it a good effort. We left early and caught bait. Checked 2 or 3 areas for fish, as it was fairly calm. Didn’t see many signs of them and just kept pushing. Finally got into one area and saw one or two. We kept looking and finally got into a lively area where a good handful were rolling. We set up and sharks got us a a little bit but then Rebecca hooked a big 90 lb tarpon! She fought it well and we landed it in about 40 minutes. Unfortunately by the time we were done the tarpon seemed to have dispersed. We saw a handful more and moved around, did have a few go by our baits but no more bites. We decided to move on after that. Checked an area where we saw them good a few days ago but didn’t see much surface activity today out there. We did see a few on the electronics, but no more bites though a few more sharks. We did have a few tripletails float by we casted too, but they didn’t seem happy and the baits floated right off there noses. We had a bit more time and I gave it a few extra minutes too just looking in one more area, then fished some numbers in another area for a last ditch effort. But didn’t see much else except for a few more sharks. Anyways we gave it a hard effort and covered some ground, and always happy to catch one plus it was a big one. The crew decided to rebook me for Saturday so hopefully we can get Preston his tarpon then!  1 for 1

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