Well another busy week here fishing for tarpon this May in Islamorada, Florida. It was great weather again we had a little overcast Monday with slight drizzle but with the low light conditions it made for superb tarpon fishing. We had the bridges to ourselves not sure if the chance of rain had people spooked but it wasn’t too bad at all. We ended up having a high hookup ratio and landed 5 fish and missed only one. So great day with Casey and Davita. The next day I had Casey, Nathan, and Wyatt and it was a nice sunny day slick calm. Unfortunately a lot more fishing pressure too there were probably about 30 boats down there so word had gotten out! Fishing was a little tougher we had to work at it we ended up catching one right off the bat which was nice but after that had to grind for a couple hours more for a bite. Eventually we did get a couple more right near the tide change but they ended up breaking us off in the bridge straight away. Once the tide fell we jumped around some more and had 3 more ‘short’ bites where the tarpon grabbed it and ran for a few seconds but never got the hook. You can tell when the fish get finicky they’ll do that short bite thing more and likely because all the pressure. But ample bites anyhow though we only capitalized on one of them. Wednesday I had Zak, Nathan, and Wyatt and we had a little tougher day overall. Had to really grind all day and it was work but we did end up catching a couple tarpon and possibly missed one or two more that zipped quick like we were talking about. But got two boatside and good pictures of one for Nathan to finish the day. Thursday and Friday I had Gary and Kim who fished with me several years ago. We had great fishing both days! Thursday it was a bit windy with some west wind kicking up pretty good but I figured a little change might not be a bad thing. Sure enough we ended up getting some good bites in the morning, catching a couple tarpon and losing a couple others in the bridge. We also had a couple other pick-ups we missed but not bad overall I think with 6 or 7 bites. Then Friday we could do no wrong we ended up catching 5 tarpon and getting two up boatside for good pictures and leader released the others. Kim was happy to battle a nice 90 lb tarpon for over an hour and got it to roll over for a nice picture. What a battle and I tell people getting that picture is a whole other battle than simply getting the leader on one. But good job! So all in all a great week of fishing hopefully it’ll continue here a while longer. I think it will as this year we had a late start with the late cold weather so hoping June will still be good fishing for us.
Been going hard at it and we’ve had another great week of fishing here in Islamorada for tarpon! Monday and Tuesday I had Steve visiting from GA we fished locally for an hour or so whilst waiting for a little fresh bait. We ended up hooking a nice fish in the channels that unfortunately got wrapped up funny on the motor as it was slack tide and going under the boat. Got away but an exciting bite in the dark! We got our bait and then headed to the bridges. Caught the tide just changing and things were a little slow to start. We jumped around for a couple hours giving it our best and once the tide started rolling they bit. We caught a couple nice fish within an hour of each other, then had a couple back to back bites we missed one and got the last one. Making for 3 fish on the day but unfortunately no picture takers or face grabs. Tuesday I had the same guys and we decided to try the backcountry because I’d heard there was good fishing back there Monday and we were hoping to get hands on one which sometimes is easier back there as you can fish heavier gear often and also not worry about breaking them off in the bridges. We didn’t see much early at all where the hot bite was the day before. We checked some other spots and actually saw a ton of tarpon in one of them, though the little black tip sharks ate us alive and the tarpon really just did not want to bite. But we had packs of 15-20 swimming by the boat lots of little guys in the 20 lb range. We fished elsewhere and actually saw a handful of fish in two other areas we tried and I was sure we’d get bit but it never really happened for us. Though we had plenty of shark action. Oh well should’ve stuck to the bridges! But at least we’d had some tarpon there the day before. Wednesday back to the bridges we had good fishing with John and Bill landing 3 tarpon and hooking another 3 we missed or lost. They kind of bit all through both tides and even had a bite on the slack tide. People often ask what tide is best or want to time the tides, and I say truthfully it can be good on either or and even better on the slack tide sometimes! And it changes day to day. So it’s really impossible to time the ‘best tides’ for fishing for tarpon. Though you’ll usually have an idea of it a few days out based on what happened the day before, but again it can change. Thursday I had Keith and his wife Kristin visiting from the west coast. Keith was here several years ago trying for tarpon with another guide and did not get one so it was on his bucket list. Well we filled the bucket and then some today he landed 5 tarpon including a couple big girls. No face grabs they were very much wanting to break us off today we had several fish doing figure 8s in the bridge, and making 180 u-turns under the boat. But we got 5 of them up on the wind-on leader next to the boat but just couldn’t stop them for a picture. Great fishing indeed! Friday had Keith again and we whomped ’em again, getting leader on another 5 tarpon though again no face grabs. We called it a day at 11:30 so got to come home a little early even and Keith was super stoked to have had two phenomenal days of fishing.
Wow we’re officially into May here and it really is starting to feel like summer time! Last week we had another late cold front midweek that didn’t get super cold by any means but it definitely turned the dial down on the fishing for us. We had extreme wind and water temperatures did go from near 80 back down to 70 one day. So it made for a little tougher fishing last week though we were still picking away at the tarpon. This week it flip flopped – its been flat calm and warm with 80 degree water again. The sargasm weed is starting to come through and I’m hearing of good mahi fishing offshore. Really much more like summer time conditions. Monday I fished Codey and Chris and we stayed local and hit the bridges. Capt. Steve had reported some good fishing around the bridges the previous days he fished over the weekend. We found a good pack of fish pretty dense between a few of the bridge pilings and ended up catching a couple first thing on the last of the incoming tide. The fish really seemed to be concentrated pretty well though as I looked around almost the entire bridge and did not see much for anything else. Once the tide fell we ended up staying there and just hitting that pack of fish again, and would move off and look elsewhere afterwards. But we ended up hooking 5 and landing 2 and the others broke us off or jumped off. But good fishing overall and we also had a few nurse sharks and a goliath grouper. Tuesday I had Shamus, John, and Kyle out fishing for the day. We tried down there at that same area but did not have any luck first thing. I decided to high tail it further south and we went to another area where we had that big shark chase a tarpon last week. Today no sharks thankfully and the tarpon got super happy. We caught the last of the incoming tide and not much was happening but we ended up hooking one on the near slack tide. Got it to the leader and she broke off. After that when the tide started falling they started rallying good for us we ended up catching a couple more one for each of the boys, and I think we hooked another 4 or 5. A few of those bites were hard zips but I’m fairly sure they were tarpon as you start to be able to tell the difference when you do it as much as i do. So banner day with the bites and I am feeling it’s going to stay strong here for a while through May. Tuesday I had Randy out and we went right back to the bridge where we had that action yesterday. We got there early and caught a few live baits on the way. Fishing was great for us it was truly an incredible day. We ended up catching I think 7 tarpon getting 4 to the hand and leader release on 3 others. Plus we jumped off a handful more. We really did not go much more than 5 or 10 minutes without hooking a fish. And no sharks to worry about and we got beautiful pictures of our last big fish that was probably over 120 lbs! Incredible day and one of the best I’ve had in a long time! Thursday I had Amy and Joby and nice calm conditions again. Fishing got a little tougher though not that it was bad, but we went a couple hours in the morning without a sniff… jumping around several times and making me sweat a little bit! But eventually we got some bites and we ended up catching four out of five that we hooked, and got one big one to the hand which was great for a nice picture. Also our last bait out we got a big goliath grouper of 100 lbs or so which was cool to finish on. Then finally Friday I had some of my favorites, return customers Pride and Cile who have been fishing with me for over a decade or so. It was the full moon and somebody turned the fishing on hard mode for sure! We tried to find a little live bait early on but it seemed to have all disappeared… which was no surprise sometimes on a full moon that happens things go offshore to spawn. We found a good amount of fish down at the bridges but today they really did not seem happy. We had a few live baits left over we tried and did our usual thing, jumping around and setting up in different ways. We really worked all up and down the bridge. We finally did get a good zip out of one after a few hours, but he came off dropping the bait. I thought for sure we’d get another shot but it just didn’t happen. So we ran back up near home and checked a couple of the other bridges. Did not see much in the first stop and then went to another one. It was almost high noon, slick calm, crystal clear water, and slacking up incoming tide. About as bad of conditions as you could get honestly! Though we marked a few fish in one spot. We set up and literally with our last two baits we ended up finally hooking a nice 40-50 lber for Pride! He stayed buttoned and we got him to the boat for a nice picture. If somebody asked me on a trip when were you the most discouraged and thinking it wasn’t going to happen, but then you ended up catching a tarpon, when would that have been? It would of been that last hour! So that’s why you always keep grinding and why fishing is so fun you just never know! So all in all a great week we produced tarpon every trip and hopefully a few days off now for them to get a little hungrier and past this full moon for next week.
I’m all booked up this month but Capt. Steve has a few openings here and there especially with the evening trips. I’m also happy to announce Capt. Luke is finally getting this Capt. license as that had been held up the last couple of months with the government shutdown. He will very soon be available on the seacraft for tarpon trips he’s been fishing with me quite a few times through season here and taking the boat out on his own the last few months catching bait and figuring things out. But we’ll have him under my and capt. steves wing so he’ll be in the know on the fishing and ready to show people a good time!
Hello my name is Capt. Rick Stanczyk. I’m a fishing guide in the fabulous Florida Keys, Islamorada to be specific. Tarpon are the species I spend a lot of time fishing for and they are my passion. Along with myself, I have a team of young talented guides who I've trained that are available for tarpon charters, so please get in touch if you want to go fishing!
