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5/31/18 – Got out with Allen and Paul today for the 1st of 3 days trip.  We gave tarpon a try early on, had one boil on a live bait and a pick up on another bait but dropped it quickly.  But that was it.  We decided to mix things up for the rest of the day and had good action with snapper, trout, and mackerel, and caught some sharks later in the day and finished up with a nice sawfish!  0 for 1

6/1/18 – Had Allen and Graham today of the same group though the guys mixed up the crew some today.  We ran deep into the glades and did get a tarpon early on.  We saw quite a few fish and I thought we’d get a few more bites, but they were pretty finicky!  But glad to be back on the board getting one.  We caught  a variety of sharks as well, and then on the way home we saw a few tarpon in one of the channels in the backcountry which was good to see.  Hopefully some more will be moving in.  We have several days of west wind coming up after tomorrow so that may make the fishing a little screwy again.  1 for 1

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

Got out with Nick today for a full day of fishing.  I told him the tarpon bite had been very slow so he was good with mixing things up a little bit thankfully. We tried for tarpon early without any luck didn’t even see any fish.  We then mixed it up with our light tackle tried for a bonefish for a little bit with no luck, but then went into the bay and had very good action for snapper, trout, mackerel, and big ladyfish.  Nice to bend the rod and get some stuff to eat!  We checked a few backcountry channels after that and just absolutely no life whatsoever again, not even a shark bite!  Unbelievable really.  We ran back towards home and got a little more fresh bait and tried by the bridges where I had seen a few tarpon yesterday.  Didn’t see any today though did hear a report that one had been caught there.  We gave it some time and did catch a shark, but never saw a tarpon.  Though one boat did hook one as we were leaving in the general vicinity.  Anyways there are a very small handful of fish around, hopefully after this full moon we will get another push of fish.  If you are fishing down here now, it definitely is advisable to be flexible with what you are targeting!  0 for 0

5/28/18 – Got out with Dave and his family down from Alaska.  We fished for bonefish most of the day, stake-up fishing from a dead boat with shrimp.  It was a banner day we landed 8 bonefish!  We did try tarpon just for the last hour or so in one of the local channels.  It was blowing 25 mph and nasty so I didn’t want to dedicate the day to it.  But we didn’t get a bit though we did catch a shark and a bluefish.  0 for 0

5/28/18 – The first nice days we’ve had in a long time.  It was still overcast with some slight drizzle, but it was just a light 10 mph out of the south that slicked out during some periods.  We ran way into the backcountry looking for tarpon.  But we found an absolute mess of mud and seaweed due to the tropical storm a couple days ago.  I was hoping my further area would have been up the coast far enough that it didn’t get brutalized by the conditions but I was wrong.  We did see a couple tarpon there but not enough worth trying to fish for in my opinion.  We backtracked and tried some other backcountry channels, one looked OK not too crazy muddy, but never had a sniff of anything and we fished it hard.  Did see one tarpon roll here.  We tried another channel and same thing but didn’t see any sign of life at all.  Another channel we drove through and looked hoping to see a roller or two, but nothing.  The seaweed looked horrendous here so I figured it wasn’t even worth trying.  At that point we decided to run back and try near Islamorada.  Saw a couple fish in a couple spots, but literally just a couple and no bites out of them.  I got a couple phone calls and texts of people asking where they were biting, So I knew it had to be tough.  Anyways we looked around and fished several other areas without much luck.  The sargasm weed was horrible in a few spots due to the storm making it almost unfishable, and the water was definitely chalky and mixed up due to the storm as well.  Anyways hopefully after a few more days the water will clear up somewhat, and maybe after this full moon some more fish will show up.  We definitely need another push of fish but we had such a good early season, sometimes this time of year gets tough when that happens!  0 for 0

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