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Had Mark and Andrew out today over from Texas for some tarpon fishing.  I told them fishing had been a little slow lately so we may mix things up a bit which they were cool with.  We tried the tarpon early, checked a few channels and didn’t see much.  Gave them a good hard look too.  We ended up going where we caught one yesterday.  Set up and got into some sharks right away.  Did see one roll we tried to get lined up but not bite.  We caught a couple lemon sharks then saw a tarpon jump nearby!  We moved over in that area and more sharks, then we moved again one more time and had a tarpon roll right behind us.  Mark hooked him up and landed a nice 40 lber!  Glad to have gotten one it took a good hour and a half of fishing but persistence paid off.  After that we caught some small pinfish and some nice trout.  We tried the pinfish off the shorelines for snook, but only had one bite we lost.  Did catch another big lemon shark though and pulled off a couple others.  We checked one of the other channels for tarpon on the way home, did have a nice one roll nearby but no bite out of him.  Surprised we didn’t see more it looked really good nice blue water.  Back at it tomorrow with these guys may run deep into the ‘glades and take a look back there.  1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with Pride and Cile two of my regulars today.  We planned on a mixed bag day but decided to give the tarpon a try early on.  Not much luck in the first area, tons of sharks though.  The second stop we did see a couple tarpon roll and a big bust in the vicinity.  We set up and then had some more shark action.  We moved around a bit and then Pride hooked up a nice 60 lb tarpon!  Good fight we landed him and got him boatside for pics.  After that it seemed to slow down didn’t see many tarpon but a few more sharks got us.  We then finished the day catching some snapper, mackerel, and trout for dinner.  Fun day!  Back at it tomorrow.  I did have a report that a good number of tarpon showed up later on in the day in the backcountry, hopefully they will stick around.  1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with Shannon and Derek for last day today.  We left early and fished locally.  Did find a spot with some fish in it that looked good.  The boys did catch a tarpon last night as I opted to cut our day short yesterday and send them out with someone for an evening trip since I figured that’d be a better opportunity for them and when fishing is tough I don’t mind doing that.  This morning though unfortunately another fellow captain had gotten there about two minutes before us, and sat right where I wanted to set up.  Not that it usually matters though but we set up a few hundred feet away.  We watched them hook up after about 30 minutes, and after an hour or so of sitting we moved around a bit.  After we did this they got back to their anchor and then about 15 minutes later hooked a double header to add insult to injury!  I asked if he minded if we set up near their anchor which he did not.  But we couldn’t get a bite there, just one of those weird deals where someone sitting in the right spot gets bit up and you are right near them and don’t get a sniff… no rhyme or reason to it.  They came back and we moved around again where we saw fish roll.  After a little while we did finally get a bite but we jumped him off.  We made a couple more moves but no more tarpon bites though we did hook a nice cuda that cut us off.  Been a hard stretch for me hopefully the fishing gets better soon.  Day off tomorrow I’ll be fixing a few things on the boat and back at it Thursday though may not be tarpon fishing.  0 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing