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Got out with Irv today for a full day of backcountry tarpon fishing in the southwest Florida area.  I saw southwest florida as we made a long run about 50 miles in search of the silver king today.  The more local backcountry area hasn’t been great fishing this past week, lots of muddy water and a little algae I think too.  But we do have a cold front coming in this weekend which will hopefully help that somewhat.  We caught our bait early and headed far away.  We found plenty of tarpon in an area my buddy had told me about.  Good information is nice to have!  We hooked a big 150 lber on one of our first baits out!  Irv got him to the boat, a monster fish and we got good pictures.  We caught some sharks after that and then about an hour later, Irv hooked up another nice 110 lb fish.  This one fooled us I thought it was a shark he didn’t jump for a while.  We got her to the boat and then she took off and jumped and broke us off, but we had the leader in the rod tip for a technical release.  Later one some more sharks, and then we got one other nice 110 lb fish to finish the day of tarpon fishing!  Just epic for this time of year in February, doesn’t get any better then that!  We caught a few triple tails on the way home but the wind really kicked up hard and it got very rough, so we had to nix that idea.  Looks like we may get a couple calmer days here before the weekend, then Saturday night it’s suppose to drop down into the low 60s for a few days!  Late cold front but honestly I think we need it, it’s gotten way to hot too fast and that may hurt our tarpon fishing later in the late may/june time.  I was glad to finish February strong though it was a great month for us!  3 for 3

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

Got out with return customer Jeff Godlewski today.  The winds laid off but still a slight breeze out of the south which I never really like.  We had some tarpon action early on with a couple bites on our live baits.  Jeff got tight with one though it was a long distance release as he came unbuttoned after a couple minutes.  Oh well.  We went and caught some fresh bait after that and took a look in some of the deeper everglades areas.  Not much for signs of life back there, we caught a few sharks in one spot.  Saw one tarpon and thought we might get some action but no love.  Really dirty water hopefully it will clean up soon.  We did some light tackle fishing mid day and that was OK, and then tried again around town in the afternoon for the last part of the day.  Saw a few tarpon in the local channels but again no reaction but we did catch a big barracuda and had a few larger shark bites.  Taking a day off tomorrow and then back at it wednesday.  The next 3 days look to be very calm and light easterly winds, so should be good for our fishing.  Look like a cold front incoming on Saturday.  Normally I don’t like those but I think we actually need it as it’s been so warm for February.  Probably won’t do the tarpon fishing any favors but hopefully it will help reset things a little with some of the dirty water etc…  0 for 2

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

Got out with Bill and Alicia today, return customers of mine down from Pennsylvania who also have a place here.  Bill wanted a tarpon and Alicia wanted to catch some fish to eat.  I told them the fishing had been a little tough overall lately but we could give both a shot hopefully.  We left a little early and fished some local spots as I had a tough day yesterday in the backcountry finding any numbers of tarpon and I knew a few were caught around town yesterday.  We found a few early on in the first stop and had a couple blow ups on our live baits!  No bites there but we did finally hook a fish on another rod that Bill got to catch!   A nice 90 lb tarpon, his first and he was thrilled!  We got him on the leader several times and some good video of him but unfortunately he broke off making a big run off the leader.  After that we tried to hunt around and find some eating fish for Alicia but it was a little difficult.  Couldn’t find any snappers but we did catch some mackerels and a few other species.  We tried for tarpon again later in the day I checked a few of the bridges but did not see much in the way of signs of tarpon life.  We found a few more in the area we fished in the morning, but did not get another bite though we caught a big jack crevelle.  Anyways glad we got Bill his tarpon.  Looks like the winds will subside even more tomorrow and we should have a very nice weak.  Hopefully with the calming of the weather some fish will show back up in the backcountry!  1 for 1

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