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Got out with Matt, Mike, and Kevin today for a full day charter fishing for tarpon.  We left early and hit the backcountry areas.  Found a decent amount of fish in same area as yesterday.  They didn’t seem super happy though.  We had to put some time in but eventually got one to bite.  A nice 60 lber for Matt!  We landed him and got back to it.  Hooked a big sawfish (i think) that broke us off, and got a nurse shark too.  After that the tide quit.  Things seemed to slow down and we made a move to another channel.  A few more tarpon here.  I was saying how the little sharks weren’t too bad today thankfully, but I spoke to soon as they started to show up!  We caught a few of them and then had another tarpon bite!  We missed this one though, looked like a little guy that just spit the bait straight away.  I talked to a buddy of mine who said he was in a good tarpon bite, we moved over near him as he was leaving soon.  Watched him catch one and he left and gave us some bait.  But it was all over but the shouting just sharks for us there!  Some times you just have to be in the right place at the right time.  We tried to catch a little more bait with limited success, and tried another channel.  We had a few more shark bites and then Kevin got a nice cobia which was a welcome treat.  Finished up after that, tough for the tarpon for us but at least we got 1!  Looks like tomorrow will be a decent day and then Sunday really looks like crap – 70% chance of rain and 25 mph out of the south – ugh!  May be a good one to skip we will see how it looks.  Back at it tomorrow!  1 for 2

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

Got out with Gary and his friend Bob today for a full day tarpon fishing charter.  We left early and got out after the fish.  Had a good load of bait from yesterday.  Winds were blowing somewhat, north breeze and a little chilly ride in the AM but it swung to east later on and warmed up.  Found a good amount of tarpon in our first area where I hadn’t been in several days.  Great to see!  Bob hooked up a nice 100 lber right off the bat!  We chased him around and landed him, but didn’t stay boatside for long on the leader but we got a few good jump shots and they got some video alongside the boat.  After that Gary got a small fish about a 50 lber which was great.  A little more acrobatic this one was.  We fished a little more and the sharks showed up but not as bad as they were last week.  We worked at it and got one more tarpon for Gary, a big 110 lber!  This one streaked off a couple hundred yards of line and we had to give it some juice chasing her.  She went over the flats and into another channel but we caught up and landed the fish.  Good boatside pictures of this one for the boys.  After that things quieted down some, a few more sharks and that was all.  We hit another channel and got a big bull shark to start off there that we chased down.  Then we had two smaller tarpon bites right in a row!  Small 30 lbers or so, but they both came unbuttoned fairly quick.  I thought we’d get a few more tarpon bites there but it wasn’t to be.  More sharks plenty of blacktips and one more big bull shark.  We moved around a little but no more tarpon love.  Though great day overall with 3 tarpon landed and 2 big girls!  Back at it tomorrow.  3 for 5

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

Got out with Mike and his dad for a full day of tarpon fishing in Islamorada.  We crushed the bait early this morning so we had that going for us.  Strange weather with a southeast breeze that swung around to hard north mid morning then let up nice for the afternoon.  Weak front hitting us.  We found a few tarpon early at the bridges but it was busy their with 8 boats lined up.  We had our shots though and landed 1 nice tarpon but didn’t get any pictures as it was tough around the bridges and boats for me to get it.  After that we had a few more cheap shots but nothing stuck.  We waited on the long tide change and moved around to the other side of the bridge.  Had one more bite there and had a cuda eat us off.  We tried another bridge and found some tarpon there too.  Had one big tarpon flash our bait but didn’t want to eat.  We then found a big ball of bait and reloaded the well and set back up in our original area.  We had one more tarpon bite here but jumped him off quickly unfortunately.  After that not much else happened, several nurse sharks on the bottom.  But at least we got one!  Back at it tomorrow think I’ll be going out into the backcountry winds should be back into the northeastern quadrant.  1 for 3

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