February Fishing

Well we are about a week out from the coldest stretch of weather we’ve seen here in the Keys in about 15 years! Last week temperatures got into the 40s and we had 50 degree water temps in the backcountry. Truly unbelievable and not a great recipe for tarpon fishing or really any fishing for that matter! However since then we’ve had a nice week of calm warm weather, and over the last few days tarpon have started to move back into some of the usual early season haunts. Water temps are still in the mid 60s which I would typically say it a little chilly for tarpon, but I think because it was so cold last week and we’ve had slick calm weather, they’re treating it like it’s early spring and showing up and getting active! We caught a nice tarpon yesterday with Tucker while we were fishing out in the everglades. We weren’t really targetting tarpon per se… we were jigging shrimp looking for some big drum and other winter time critters. Though our last cast of the day, a tarpon sure enough slurped it up and we got a nice 50 lber to the hand! Then today I had my dad and our buddy Bruce out. I actually had a tarpon trip booked and I checked in with my customers last week and explained it may not be ideal conditions for tarpon, being it had been so cold and water temperatures would still likely be a little chilly. They opted to cancel so I ended up taking my dad. Again we wern’t even really trying for tarpon we were looking for those big drum or possibly a snook, redfish, or cobia. We put a pinfish out and marked a few tarpon drifting by us. Sure enough dad picked up and casted towards one and we hooked up! He fought a nice 100 lber on light tackle and got it rolled over within about 30 minutes, truly an impressive feet for an 80 year old! Later on we hooked another one on the old shrimp and jig again too though that one jumped off after about a 10 minute battle. So anyways there are tarpon definitely starting to show up and from the looks of it, conditions should be staying favorable over the coming weekend into next week. So we may start having some consistent tarpon fishing. It’s still early season and anything can happen especially some late cold fronts, so I recommend being flexible with your fishing plans if you book in the next month. But for those looking to come down and enjoy some early season fishing, it’s time!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina

Got out with Kurt and his sons today for a 3/4 day tarpon trip.  We had some weather over the weekend… a cold front came in and stiff north breeze.  Didn’t get super cold but it did drop the water temperature down to the high 60s in parts of the bay so it definitely cooled off from what it was.  I had heard fishing was pretty tough back in the backcountry overall with that near 10 degree temperature drop in the water.  Today it had gotten nicer though we still had bit of a northwest breeze and on the chillier side with water temps in the low 70s.  The guys wanted tarpon so we went on the hunt for mullet as we were starting from scratch.  Found a few nearby that we kept live and then ran around in the bay looking for some muds.  We keep our eyes peeled for bombing birds and sure enough we saw a bunch of them in a cut on a nearby flat going crazy bombing.  We dropped in and made a couple throws and had more mullet than we knew what to do with.  I decided to fish locally around town as I wasn’t sure about making the long run in the backcountry especially with the conditions being a little strange.  We found some fish around the bridges but they weren’t too happy.  We did catch quite a few large jack crevelles though.  The tarpon were definitely there but just not responsive.  Once the tide quit coming in we made a run back towards home and fished the local channels where the tide had already started falling.  We found a good group of tarpon in one channel and set up and hooked one in about 30 minutes.  Nice 80 lber we got boatside but didn’t quite want to roll over for us.  After that we found some more in that same area and we hooked a 140 lb big fish!  Same thing got her boatside and almost rolled over but she made one kick of her tail and popped, but we were able to get some pics of her next to the boat at least.  The boys were stoked to have each caught a big tarpon!  Weathers getting more stabilized now and no fronts on the horizon so we should have some good fishing for tarpon the next week or two I think.  If you want to get out there give us a shout we have trips available and evening trips are an option as well especially if you are wanting to cherry pick the conditions.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina

Well last week we fished three days for tarpon out back.  On Monday we had nice northeasterly wind and I had Jan out.  We hooked a half dozen tarpon and landed 3 big ones, getting one up to the boat for pictures!  He was super excited and we put that big one on the wall for him with Grays Taxidermy.  Great day overall.  Now the following day the wind swung around and was blowing hard out of the south… a good 20 mph and it was ‘full moon’ too.  It was like somebody flipped the switch and it was rough out there and the tarpon were not happy.  We grinded hard for 4 hours and never had a bite out of the tarpon.  Not sure if it was the wind, moon, or combination but they weren’t having it.  Tried some pinfish too and no luck.  We ended up jumping in the creeks and caught a handful of snook and redfish to at least make something happen.  Two days after that it was still blowing south but only 10 mph so much nicer.  We got out there and hooked 3 tarpon in the first 30 minutes or so.  They all came off the hook unfortunately but at least they seemed to be biting right?  Wrong.  After that they did a complete shutdown again and we fished hard for several more hours only to catch a handful of sharks.  We did pick a half a dozen snook at the end of the day at least to do something.  I took the long weekend off and was back at it today on Tuesday.  It was slick calm and I heard yesterday was decent fishing back there.  Tons and tons of fish as far as you could see and they were literally bouncing off the boat.  But again not biting great.  I think the other 20 boats out there may have had something to do with it… I think they’ve been feeling the pressure.  We kept at it and jumped around, moved a couple of miles away from the crowd, and low and behold we hooked a double header!  Caught both fish though unfortunately one got sharked before we could get a picture and that ended that.  We caught one more tarpon an hour or so later and then also got a nice 27 inch tripletail and a 35 inch bull redfish.  So all in all a great day but had to work for those handful of tarpon bites.  So lots of fish out there but not always easy but I think it’ll get better as conditions continue to stabilize and maybe once the fishing pressure lets up a little bit.  Another front this weekend but not suppose to get cold just a little windy, I think that will give them a break out there and maybe lead to some better response!  We’ve got days available if you are looking to fish give us a shout!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina