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Day 1 with the Stepan Polymers group today.  Winds were howling 20-25 mph out of the east.  We caught some bait early on and my crew today was after a mixed bag.  We tarpon fished early on and things were slow.  Found an absolute ton of fish around one of the bridges but they were not responding to us much.  We saw one fish caught out of the 10 or so boats down there.  We made multiple moves and tried several tactics, had a few fish come up and chase the baits but that was about it.  We did get a big jack crevelle and a large mangrove snapper.  We gave it about an hour and a half, and then the boys wanted to mix things up some.  Took a while to get out back because of the wind we had to run a much longer route to avoid getting in the waves.  We caught a few ladyfish and then some sharks in the channels out back.  Tried for tarpon again for the last 45 minutes in the local channels around town, didn’t get a bite there and didn’t really see any fish.  Anyways tough day hopefully things will get a little better as we get away from the full moon.  But looks like the winds will still be howling through until the weekend at least.  I might make a long run tomorrow depending what my crew wants to try and do, and again being this group trip they aren’t early risers and they do like to mix things up so like today sometimes we don’t give the tarpon fishing a full measure.  0 for 0

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

Got out with Dan, Mike, and Jay for a full day of backcountry fishing in Islamorada in April.  Dan’s fished with me several times.  He likes tarpon but also likes to mix it up with sharks and some smaller fish, so that gave us our answer of where to fish.  The backcountry provides much more flexibility with those things.  We tried tarpon to start and I knew some sharks would be mixed in.  We found some fish but they were just not happy at all.  We moved several times and fished very hard going through a lot of bait.  I tried 3 different channels, moving several times in each one, but all we got were blacktips sharks and a few nurse sharks.  We definitely had some tarpon around us in every spot, not tons of fish but a good handful which we could see visually and on the sonar.  I was very surprised to not even get a bite but all I can figure is the full moon may have gotten us, though it could’ve also been the crazy winds which were starting to build and will be blowing all this week.  While you cannot predict many conditional factors far in advance the full moon is always one that sometimes throws a monkey wrench into the best laid plans.  I did hear some fish bit locally but back there it was just not happening.  Anyways we did a little bit of light rod fishing after that and caught some trout.  Then tried tarpon again for the last hour, again had a handful of fish around us in one of those areas too but no love.  We did get a nice hammerhead which was a good surprise to finish.  Anyways tough day I was expecting to catch a few but tarpon can always keep you humble.  I have a big group trip this week for the next four days, so we will likely be doing some tarpon but mixing it up a bit too.  Winds will be kicking so it may be a little tougher, last year these guys had flat calm dream days of fishing.  0 for 0

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

Had Tony, Zack, and Andre out for day two today.  Yesterday they all marked tarpon off their list so pressure was off today.  I figured we’d mix it up a bit and caught some pilchards to start the day.  We tried some snook areas first and found a few good fish in one spot, and then mostly jack crevelles in the rest.  But Andre got a nice 10 lb snook though!  We then spent some time catching some mullet which was work but we got what we needed.  We checked some areas for tarpon since it was flat calm and found a load of them!  We had to move around but got on a hot bite, we ended up hooking two double headers and a few others too!  Unfortunately they were smaller sized fish and were coming unbuttoned easily, but we did manage to land two at least.  After that the wind kicked up and the tarpon seemed to disappear, so we tried a few more spots for snook on the way home.  Not much luck but we did get a nice big mangrove snapper and another jack.  Anyways great day and I’ll be back at it tomorrow.  Found a big school of mullet this afternoon so I was able to load up on bait.  Looks like the winds will start cranking unfortunately, but hopefully the tarpon will stay somewhat happy!  2 for 6

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