April Fishing

Well we are officially into April which is generally considered the start of true ‘prime time’ tarpon fishing here in the Florida Keys.  This year however things are not quite rolling as much as we’d like to yet.  I fished locally this week as much of the early season backcountry tarpon fishing hasn’t really been quite worth the run and we’ve been finding some decent fishing closer to home.  So Monday we caught two tarpon and missed one more fishing the local channels nearby and getting an early start, getting one nice fish on a live mullet and another on dead.  That was in the first couple hours of the morning.  After that we didn’t have much other tarpon action but we caught some jacks and sharks.  Wednesday was similar fishing for us I had Kevin out and we did the same routine and again caught a nice fish on our live mullet first thing and jumped another one off.  We did have some bites later in the day as well jumping a fish at one of the bridges and then jumping a couple more fish in the last 30 minutes before it was time to come home.  But did get one up to the boat for pictures at least!  Today the wind really picked up and it was blowing a good 20-25 mph.  We didn’t get a whole lot of love early on, had one bite we missed near daybreak but not sure if it was a tarpon or not.  Then an hour or so later had a similar bite in another spot just zipped drag for about a couple seconds and stopped.  We didn’t mark quite as many as tarpon as the couple days before but we were marking a handful so that kept our heads in the game.  We ran down and tried the bridges it was pretty gnarly with the wind and waves but we did get a tarpon to eat a live bait though he sucked him right off the hook unfortunately.  We did catch several big jacks and a nurse shark again.  Not much for tarpon at the bridges yet unfortunately but hopefully that will change soon.  We did luck out though and on the way home we stopped where we had jumped a couple fish in the afternoon the day before and they were in there again.  We caught one pretty quickly and then jumped another one and with about 20 minutes left we caught another 40-50 lb fish, so two on the board in the last hour which was a great way to end a little bit of a frustrating day with missed bites otherwise.

So all in all not a bad week we caught tarpon every trip so can’t complain about that too much but again it’s not quite what we like to see in April.  Having to still really work for a handful of bites and no big piles of fish anywhere where you can just stay in one area all day long.  But again I’m hopeful that will mean our later season fishing may be a little better we’ll just have to wait and see.  If you want to get out give me a shout I can let you know what’s going on… Capt. Steve and Capt. Trent have some availability especially on more short notice night trips which can be a great time to target the silver king!

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

Just wrapped up another great week of islamorada tarpon fishing in May here.  We had fabulous weather… it’s really stabilized for May which is nice and again the forecast still looking great in the 10-day range.  Still good numbers of fish around too.  We had a tournament going on last week and it was pretty busy on the water most of this week as well.  Some days competing with 30+ boats down around the bridge.  Though we still had good fishing overall which was great!  I think we had 4-6 fish ‘technically’ landed each day this past week.  A technical catch means getting them to the wind-on leader, basically the last 20 or so foot of the line.  Though it was tough getting fish ‘rolled’ over which if you are wanting that glory picture is required.  It really takes having the fish hooked in the proper place, having the ability to really put ample and correct pressure on the fish, and a little bit of luck to get that to happen.  We are usually happy to be able to roll one fish over in a day for a good picture especially when fishing at the bridges as there is a lot that can go wrong there.  But if it easy it wouldn’t be as satisfying!  Anyways we had  good incoming tide on our morning this past week.  The bite was pretty good through that incoming, and then again on the fall in the early afternoon they rallied again.  So consistent fishing through both tides.  I will say after the tournament was over the fish did seem to settle down a little… we had a couple days last week where they were just acting crazy and you could tell the pressure had an effect on them… really making crazy runs through the bridge at high speed, doing figure 8s, etc…  So next week should be good fishing I imagine.  I did have a cancellation and could go either May 14 or 15 if someone is looking to go.  June I have a few dates left as well and of course Capt. Stephen and Capt. Trent have availability as well.  Those night trips are often a good bet in June as it starts to get into the heat of summer, being out in the early evening is just a nice time to be on the water and the bite often turns on near sunset.

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

I had a busy week this week and moved some days around for one of my good clients.  So instead of fishing my typical monday, tuesday, wednesday, this week was monday, wednesday, thursday, and friday.  Monday I had one of my good customers Bill out and we had some tough weather.  It was still blowing 25 mph which it had been over the previous weekend but hadn’t laid down.  We had fairly weak tide into the wind most of the morning so we were fishing with loose line off of our bow… not much happening.  Though once the tide started in we did get some action.  Bill hooked a couple of big fish in the 150 lb class and we were able to get both of them up to the hand which was awesome.  Though we did have a monster hammerhead about 500 lbs or more come take a look at one of the fish.  He nudged it a few times but never tried to actually eat it I think the fish was too big for his liking!  Lucky for us.  Anyways still a great day to get two big fish and luckily Bill really knows how to pull on those fish so we caught them in ample time but those were the only 2 bites we had.  By Wednesday the winds had laid down nice again to 10-15 mph.  I had return customer Irv and his son Carson.  We had stronger tide and I think a lot of that had to do with the wind laying down not blowing against it so hard.  We had good fishing all through the day and I think we caught 5 tarpon and lost or missed a few others.  Also a keeper mutton snapper, a small cobia, and a goliath grouper, among other things!  Yes the ‘others’ have started to bite it seems like with May rolling around… a nice mutton snapper is always welcome!  Then Thursday and Friday I had my regular customer Gerald here with some guys from his work.  We tarpon fished both days and I will say the fish were just acting a lot more erratic than normal.  But there was a lot of fishing pressure with a tournament going on and a couple dozen boats down there all day both days.  We had good fishing I think getting 8 or 10 bites each day, but many of the fish were going through the bridges and acting super wild.  We had multiple fish on our leaders through the day which we count as a ‘caught’ fish, though not necessarily what people want if they are wanting pictures and a totally subdued fish boatside.  Though they just seemed to not be having any of that.  Finally on the second day we did get one boatside and rolled over but as soon as we got hands on her she kicked hard and broke off.  But that’s how tarpon fishing goes and getting your glory picture shot is never a guarantee!  Anyways like I said we had good action both days… a little boredom at times where we’d have a stretch without much happening.  But than you might get 2 or 3 bites in a row after a few quick moves.  Hopefully next week things might settle down if the fishing pressure dials down a little bit.  But we should be coming up on good incoming tides for the morning and the wind forecast is favorable staying light to moderate.  Back at it Monday!

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