Rick Stanczyk

Well got back to it this past week here tarpon fishing in Islamorada!  We were away for Spring Break the week before but Tuesday the 24th was my first day back on the grind.  I had Thomas and Eric out who fished with me previously a few years ago.  The weather looked pretty good the winds had calmed down a lot.  While I was gone the week before we had another late cold front which made fishing very tough from what I heard.  It didn’t get super cold but back into the low 60s and some heavy winds for a few days blowing 25.  However over the weekend before we fished it calmed down so we had a few days for it to warm up and get nice.  Fishing was good for us we found a fair amount of tarpon where they’d been a couple weeks previously, though not the gigantic school that was out there before.  It took a minute to really get on them but we did.  We had a bite within the first 10 minutes and jumped it off, then about 20 minutes later had another that we caught!  Unfortunately a shark started chasing it so we got it up boatside and got a little video and popped her off so the fish could have a chance to survive.  After that the tarpon scattered so we moved around a bit and eventually got on them again.  We had 3 more bites I believe and ended up landing one more fish but same thing after about 30-40 minutes a shark chased it and the boys were happy to break it off again to let the fish survive.  Wednesday fishing was very similar I think we had 5 bites throughout the day but we did get a nice fish to the hand for a great picture!  This was with Nick Martin and crew we had a lot of fun with his boys.  Yesterday fishing got a little tougher for us but we still had some fun.  I had Sam and John visiting from Texas.  The boys were throwing artificials while we were fishing our baits and Sam had a big 100 lber eat in the first 20 minutes that almost pulled the rod out of his hand!  Didn’t stay on there but it was very exciting.  After that we saw plenty of fish but they were just not being cooperative for us.  We moved a good 7 or 8 times and then finally in the last 30 minutes of our trip we hooked a nice one that John caught.  But as happened a few days ago a shark got after it but we got some good video of some jumps and near boat side action.  And at least got one for the day.

Looks like the wind is picking up this coming week so things may change a little but hopefully won’t be too bad.  The backcountry tarpon fishing may be nearing an end here as mentioned the numbers of fish back there are thinning out and typically in April they start making there way here and load up around the channels, shorelines, and bridges of the keys.  We’ll see how this year goes as it’s always a little different where and when.  I do still have a few April days open one next week (Thursday) and then a couple in mid-April and a couple at the end of April.  Shoot me a message if you want to get out.  I’ve also opened myself up for June – the 2nd week of June is all booked up but I have the whole first and third week open if you want to jump on that for an early summer tarpon trip!

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

We’re half way into March and tarpon fishing is firing up!  The first week of March brought some tremendous winds but at least the severe cold fronts had come to an end.  Water temperatures were back up into that ‘tarpon range’ in the low to mid 70s, and get back into the higher 70s this last week.  The first week as mentioned was super windy – 20 to 25 knots every day!  I did not fish much but I did fish return customer Jan on Wednesday the 4th.  We made it back to the cape and with the early falling tide it was slightly calmer and we found a few jumping showing fish.  We set up and moved once I think but eventually hooked him a nice tarpon of 50 or so pounds we were able to land for him.  After that we hooked a monster tiger shark that we fought for a long time and got a glimpse of but it was so rough it was difficult to do much with him.  The bite shut off after that and when the tide turned it got really sloppy.  We ended up trying a couple other places near home but did not have any other luck.  This last week the winds settled down somewhat.  I fished every day and on Monday we tried for tarpon some in the morning.  The bite was  a bit slow and again the fish seemed to respond better on that falling tide though we had a very short falling tide window.  After a couple hours we did get our bite that we missed unfortunately he jumped and spit it, and we had one other one pick up a bait and drop it.  Though we did catch a few different sharks and the boys wanted some dinner so we cut it short and caught a few snappers on the way home.  Tuesday I fished Matt and again it was a nicer day.  Not much first thing in the AM but again after a couple hours and once we got that falling tide window, we ended up hooking two fish and landed both of them!  A big shark tried to eat one of the tarpon but the tarpon was about as big as he was (a 100 lber!)  We weren’t able to get boat side pictures but we did get the fish off and pretty sure were able to save him by driving circles around him with the boat to throw off the sharks.  Wednesday we fished hard all day out there and did not get a tarpon bite all day!   I had three guys though and we did catch over 20 sharks I would say so they at least had action.  Tarpon were jumping all over the place and on this day we really got no falling tide window at all (really weird tide it was just a weak incoming all day).  We did try another channel on the way home where we saw a free jumping tarpon but alas no bite there for us either.  Then yesterday, Thursday, I fished a half day as we had friends coming into town.  There were some fish here locally in Islamorada and we were able to put them on one early in the first hour, plus a few sharks.  After that though the bite seemed to die out we didn’t really get a bite of anything else the last couple of hours.  Though I did hear some tarpon bit better a little bit later in the day locally when the tide turned and came in.   So there you have it, we’re starting to catch some tarpon but it’s been a bit of work though lots of fish starting to show up.  Hopefully as conditions settle and we get more into April we’ll get some windows of great fishing.  The next couple of weeks though its a lot of either fishing 10 minutes from the dock or running an hour to get to them in the backcountry.  I’m out of town for spring break now this coming week but I’m back to fishing the week of the 23rd and have some days open starting then as well as the week of the 30th.  Give me a shout to get on out!

Also Capt. Stephen has started doing a few evening/night trips for tarpon.  They had good luck this week on a couple different evening trips getting a fish and handful of other shots each evening.  Including a monster 150+ lb fish pictured below that may be going on the wall with Grey’s Taxidermy!  If you want to mount a trophy tarpon don’t forget to ask!

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