April Fishing

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

Well another great week of fishing here in Islamorada for tarpon here at the end of April.  I fished my usual Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this past week.  We had fairly calm weather Monday and there were a ton of tarpon showing up at the bridge this week.  You could see them rolling and popping for a good ways into the bay too, not just laid up under the bridge.  Definitely the week that we got a huge push of fish down there so that is good to see.  Fishing was good we ended up landing 5 and we had bites out of 10 or more fish.  We even hooked a double header though unfortunately both fish came off for us!  Tuesday was pretty similar fishing wise we also landed 5 on this day.  The weather did switch around though we had a weak ‘cool’ front come in so we had north wind all day.  I had my regular customer Bill out and was glad to have a good day with him.  Finally Wednesday was back to traditional easterly wind though we were in the lee of it where we were though it was blowing pretty good 15-20 mph.  Another day with 5 fish that seemed to be the magic number this week and I think we had 8 or so bites.  Big hammerhead did get one fish on us unfortunately… really came out of nowhere and we broke the fish off though it grabbed her straight away.  The full moon was on Tuesday night as well which I normally don’t recommended planning in advance right around the full moon as sometimes it seems to slow the bite down.  Though didn’t seem to bother them this week much.  Anyways I’ll be back at it next week hoping we’ll have a strong May this year it looks like it might be possible with the big numbers of fish only now seeming to fill in at the bridge.

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

Well we had a phenomenal week of fishing here in Islamorada for tarpon this past week.  I fished my standard Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on 4/15/24, 4/16/24, and 4/17/24.  Conditions were fairly similar all of those days with moderate east/southeast winds.  We had just had a cool front a few days before at the end of the previous week so temperatures are actually still on the cooler side for what we’ve come to expect for this time of year in recent years.  Though this year it really seems the cooler winter-like weather and late cool fronts have been sticking around through the spring.  Overall this probably isn’t a bad thing for the ecosystem as you hear how much damage the heat of summer can do.  But it can lead to tougher fishing especially if you are here when it’s cooled off when those fish have been happy with it being warm.  Anyways luckily this was several days later and back to more spring like tradewinds and on the warming trend.

So Monday I had Ian and Brook down for a late 50th birthday trip for Ian.  He had never landed a tarpon before but had done plenty of fishing in Jacksonville and elsewhere in Florida for different species.  We had a great day we got leader on 6 fish and I think had another bite or two.  Unfortunately we weren’t able to get a ‘face grab’ on any of the tarpon.  We had several up boatside but they kept shaking off or going through the leader when it was time to do that.  Which happens and sometimes you feel like you lost your fish at that point but that is just part of the game with tarpon pictures are never a guarantee!  And also one of the reasons I try to get good picture and video of the fight and jumps.  So fishing was a good bit better than I expected as we had kind of a lame falling tide for our fishing window this week.  We had a trickle of incoming in the morning and then it slacked up.  And the falling tide only lasted a couple hours or so before it slacked up again, and then it started racing in again for a good long time well past when we were out.  But we ended up having somewhat of a rally of bites around the start of the falling tide and the start of the rise again, as well as a couple through the slack.  Sometimes in those scenarios the fish really dont feed much during that weak current, but we were able to work through it with some level of productivity.

On Tuesday the tide again was similar but of course an hour or so later, so we had a little more incoming in the morning when we got out.  I had Jared and his dad Marvin down.  Fishing was good to us again and very similar action I think we had around the same number of bites and again 6 landed fish.  We were lucky to get a good fish up for pictures today as well.

Then finally on Wednesday I had Travis, Cathy, and Tommy. Travis was visiting from Texas and it was a bucket list trip to catch a tarpon.  We had a good couple hours of incoming tide to start the day and it was hot and heavy action for the first hour and a half.  We caught 4 tarpon in that window and 3 of those bites came really quick, before I even had a chance to get my second bait out in most cases!  Right away we got one up to the boat for pictures which was awesome.  Things slowed down a little when the tide quit for us.  But when it started to fall we started getting action again and we ended up catching 2 more tarpon and missed or lost 3 others I think.  Just phenomenal fishing that day and such fun people to fish with they were really excited about it.

So overall what a week that was my best week thus far with 18 fish landed!  And as mentioned it was around funky tides so it goes to show you that you never really know what to expect out there.  People are always wanting to know the best time to come and I always say it’s very hard to say… I can give you a good idea a few days out once we know the weather and short term conditions, as well as how the fish are biting.  But knowing a month or more ahead of time it’s very difficult to forecast.  As I always say when booking just try to stay away from that full moon that’s one thing you can easily predict way out and not that it’s always bad but occasionally I notice we have difficult day time fishing right near the full moon.

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