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Well we are getting all of our february weather here now in early march!  We’ve had a couple late cold fronts hit us right in a row, with another one coming in on Tuesday for several nights to drop us back into the 50s!  The last front a couple nights ago did the same thing and water temperatures dropped down to the low 60s, really stifling the tarpon bite.  We mixed it up the last couple days and went back to full on ‘winter time’ mode, fishing in the deeper everglades creeks and canals with our shrimp and jigs.  We actually got lucky and caught a baby tarpon both days, one a little 10 lber and then the next day a 30 lber.  Fishing was not red hot though we were lucky to get each of those as both my anglers wanted a tarpon.  Other then that we caught a good load of trout both days, the first day we also got a snook and a handful of black drum, the second day we caught another 5 snook or so.  Definitely was crowded back there on the saturday with the weather as it was.  Today on Sunday I have a half day and will not likely be tarpon fishing as the water temperatures are still low… it might be possible as now the winds have swung around and it will warm up slightly before the next front.  But I know my anglers are more into action and conditions won’t really be great, but at least I’d say there would be a shot.  Anyways with the next front coming in and it staying in the 50s for a couple nights, looks like this week will be slow again on the tarpon front.  Maybe by the weekend if we get back to 80 degree weather it will pick up again.  But honestly it’s a good needed break as we were hitting them hard all of February and we don’t want to put them down for later in the season!  1 for 1 and 1 for 1

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

Got out with Dave and Nick down from Maine for a half day trip.  We had another cold front come in the night before and dropped the temperatures down into the 60s, with the water temps getting to 69 locally.  The boys wanted some action so I didn’t recommend dedicating our trip to tarpon as that big temperature swing can definitely give them lockjaw.  We fished the patch reefs and it wasn’t easy out there but we caught a variety of things including hogfish, grouper, and snapper.  We did try for the last hour for a tarpon in some of the local channels as I had some bait saved from a couple days before.  We did see plenty of fish rolling when we arrived.  We caught the tide change and I thought maybe with the tide coming in and slightly warming up with the warmer atlantic water coming into the channel we might have a shot.  But unfortunately it didn’t happen.  After 40 minutes or so we didn’t see many of the fish any longer, I gave it some extra time for the guys since it was just a half day.  We did get a big jack crevelle and an atlantic sharpnose shark.  But that was it.  I talked to a buddy of mine who was fishing the other end of the channel on the bayside, he said the same thing he saw plenty of tarpon for a while but no love out of them.  Anyways another front came in and now temperatures dropped to 55 overnight… real winter weather again brrr!  It will slightly warm up but then another front on Tuesday, so I wouldn’t expect good tarpon fishing again until maybe at the end of the week or next weekend – IF we don’t have any more cold fronts come in!  Lots of winter weather the last week with 3 fronts in a row… where was all this weather in February!  0 for 0

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

3/5/18 – Post cold front the water temperatures chilled down a lot and still fairly windy.  We planned on a mixed bag day and I told the guys I didn’t have a ton of faith in the tarpon fishing.  We caught our limit of snappers early.  Then got some fresh bait to try for some tarpon at the bridge.  Saw quite a few fish, but no activity out of them but we did have some wicked barracuda bites!  We then hit the patch reefs and caught a bunch of hogfish and small groupers which was fun.  We tried close to home for a tarpon but kind of caught the end of the tide… did have a few around us but again no bite.  0 for 0

3/6/18 – Got out with regulars Rich and Luke Cromwell for a day.  Today the winds laid out nice with a slight east breeze then kicked up out of the south in the afternoon.  Since it was so pretty I decided to run in the backcountry.  We found a few tarpon early on in the AM but no love out of them, again on the tide change first thing.  We kept going and caught some bait and then went to look for some triple tails.  That was productive we caught several of them and wound up off the mainland looking for tarpon.  We found a few which was great but they weren’t super active biting.  We caught several sharks including some big bulls, blacktips, and spinners.  Rich got a monster snook that was about 20 lbs too!  Then a little later we made a move and got Luke on a big old 120 lb tarpon!  He fought it well for an hour and we got some good pictures.  Had plenty of fish around following our hooked fish, but by the time we landed her seemed like things had spread out a good bit.  The tide changed too and we had plenty more shark action but no more tarpon bites.  Anyways good to see, the next front is coming in Thursday night so it will likely slow the bite down again but overall I think it will be a good thing and help clean up some of the dirty water we’ve been dealing with in the bay.  Hopefully by early next week the tarpon bite will pick back up.  1 for 1

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