May Fishing

Well we’re into middle of May already can you believe it?  Summer is definitely here now the winds seemed to lay down the last week or so and it’s gotten HOT!  I’ve been on a pretty hot tarpon streak lately thankfully too after one of the toughest Aprils I’ve ever had.  We’re still finding some fish deep in the backcountry and it’s been good to us.  We’ve had to leave early to get there and it’s a bit of a run but it’s paid off.  I had Jon and Dave for 3 days last week.  Day 1 on Monday we got rained out in the AM but they asked if we could fish in the afternoon and I was able to make it happen.  We stayed local though actually and it was a nice weather window.  We caught a big 100 lb fish right off the bat in the local channels, she fought us hard for an hour and we got her boatside but she never gave up and eventually wrapped us up in the bridge.  Then we jumped around and found a few more fish but they were uncooperative, but the last 15 minutes of the trip we had a few rolling around us and boom finally hooked another!  A really wild fish that screamed out line and almost spooled us.  Big fish too and looked like we were in for another long battle but we actually rolled this fish over in about 20 minutes which was cool and got good pictures.  Great trip.  Day 2 we ran deep in the backcountry like I was talking about and we had good action landing multiple tarpon and hooking plenty more.  Day 3 we gave the tarpon a break and went snook fishing which was pretty good for us too.  Thursday and Friday I had Gerald Stuart and his group from las vegas.  We did the deep backcountry routine and it was really good.  Thursday we landed 4 fish and had a few more in the air.  Gerald caught a big one close to 100 lbs that we put on the wall with Grays Taxidermy.  Then yesterday on Friday I had others from his group and we had similar fishing, jumping several small fish early on and then the guys each landed a tarpon including another big 120 lber and a few 30 lbers.  Action all day we caught the last fish right before it was time to go in.  So that deep backcountry option has been working, I’ve not fished back there much the last couple of years as we had tremendous bridge fishing but this year I’ve gone back to it.  That is usually good through early June and then we’ll just see what’s goin on then.  Sometimes the rest of the backcountry areas fill in with fish around flamingo, we’ll just have to see.  There have been some fish in another area of the backcountry I know so maybe those will fill in a little more.  Capt. Steve and Capt. Trent have been getting a few fish around the bridges still on the half day trips and evening trips and even full days, though often it’s a good bet to break it up and try some other stuff. As mentioned snook fishing is decent now and I know they’ve been getting some big snappers and other things too.  Steve has had a couple of permit in the last week too.  June is around the corner so if you are getting out of school and wanting to book a fishing trip give us a shout!

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

We’re into May and wanted to give another tarpon fishing update here for Islamorada.  Unfortunately April closed out as being one of the worst Aprils I’d experienced tarpon fishing here in Islamorada.  We did not ever get any numbers of fish showing up at ch.2  or ch. 5 bridges, and our local channels had handful of resident fish that we were able to pick away at.  But even those got pretty wise and it was really difficult getting bites out of them.  Long key bridge had some fish and still does but not the numbers we normally see, and those ones too are very finicky.  I fished there a half dozen times and had hooked a handful of fish but had not even landed one yet.  However the last 10 days or so I found a good group of fish in the backcountry we’ve been having a lot of luck with.  Getting more my usual numbers of bites and catches for this time of year at least!  It’s not a huge school of fish and I’m not sure how much longer they’ll stick around but I’m leaving them alone for a few days and fingers crosses they’ll be happy again for me next week.  But we’ve been getting anywhere from 6 to 10 bites a day back there.  It’s taken some commitment and leaving the dock a little earlier than usual but it’s paid off handsomely.  I don’t know if I’ll be doing any more bridge fishing this season we’ll see what next week brings but in some years past I’m already starting to phase out of doing it in another couple weeks here anyways as sometimes it’s starting to fizzle out after a good run.  Though again this year it just never seemed to get started really.  I did hear there was a good load of fish down in Key West so we’ll see if they end up making there way up this way who knows.  But I’m going to be keeping my eyes open in the backcountry and hoping to find some more cooperative fish back there and maybe even mixing in some other types of fishing especially as we get into June.  Anyways there have been a few more fish biting in the evenings and Capt. Trent and Capt. Steve do have some more short notice evening availability if anyone is looking to go.  I’ll be opening my June calender shortly but if you want a date with myself feel free to reach out and I can pencil you in tenatively.  I’m also hoping July and the rest of summer will be good with backcountry tarpon fishing, I’m sure it won’t be any tougher than April was at least!  Will have another update after next week.

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

Got out last week for a couple of days… we fished Monday and Tuesday.  It’s gotten much more feeling like summer as of late… water temps are up in the 88 degree range and the water is getting that green summer time look.  But still a decent number of tarpon around not as many as a few weeks ago.  But we are seeing some fish closer to Islamorada which is nice.  On Monday I had Thomas and crew and we had a decent day catching four tarpon, three of which we got boatside for pictures they were nice and cooperative for that!  We got a couple early on right off the bat.  Then we had some misses and it slowed down a little.  We ended up jumping a couple fish again before moving up closer towards Islamorad to fish.  Then we finished the day with a couple more tarpon a nice 30 lber and then a large 100 lber!  Great way to end the day.  On Tuesday I had Peter and crew and fishing was very similar.  We had one nice 80 lb fish right off  the bat that dragged us for over a mile!  We had good pressure on the fish too but it was just hooked right in the top lip and hard to get to roll over or cooperate… but we finally did with some patience and proper pressure.  After that we had another fish we got leader on that broke us off in the bridge.  Similar as the previous day things slowed down a little but we had a few more bites, missing some and losing one in the bridge again.  Then we made the same move up to Islamorada when the tide changed and once again we ended up catching another small fish and then a large fish.  Only the one in the morning was cooperative for the boatside pics and leader releases on the rest.  But both days I think 7 or 8 bites so still decent fishing for the end of May.

I’ll be back at it this upcoming week starting in June.  Bait has still been around though not as prevalent as it was.  June can get tricky with bait sometimes but I’m hoping the little honey hole we have keeps holding some mullet for a few more weeks!  I’m booked out for June though Capt. Trent and Capt. Steve have some dates available.  Capt. Steve actually got a SLAM today – tarpon, bonefish, and permit, with some of my oldest customers which was pretty cool.  Trent has also had good fishing they had lots of tarpon bites a couple of days ago and caught some muttons and groupers as well.

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