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Got out with my regulars Jim and Gwen today.  We mixed it up a bit and did end up trying some tarpon fishing today.  Yesterday it was flat calm so the water temperatures did rise nicely.  I had heard reports some tarpon had shown up in their usual haunts.  I had a banner day with Jim and Gwen a couple days ago with lots of big snook and drum, so figured we’d give the tarpon a go as Jim always love to catch them.  We caught some mackerels in the gulf to start our day and that was OK, good action fishing we probably caught a dozen or so.  When we hit the tarpon area, we caught the middle of the falling tide and didn’t see much to start with.  The water temperatures were still in the high 60s when I got to the area.  I did mark a few tarpon however, and we just set up and gave it a go.  We had a couple sharks early on, and then I saw a tarpon roll so had some visual confirmation they were there!  Soon after we hooked a nice 85 lb tarpon that Jim caught, and it was all smiles and high fives after that!  As the tide continued to fall, the water temperatures continued to climb.  By the time we left they got all the way up to 74 or so, and it wasn’t a super sunny day.  But I guess the shallow water on the flats was warming up the deeper water as it came off.  We did see more tarpon later on, and did have one more bite before it was time to go but he didn’t stay on the hook for us.  Plenty of more sharks too including a very large blacktip/spinner shark.  Anyways I gotta say I didn’t really expect much when we got there but it ended up being not too bad.  1 for 2

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

Well haven’t been doing much tarpon fishing this month with the cold weather.  January typically isn’t a great month for them, but occasionally we get a few while fishing for snook, drum, etc… in the canals.  Or if we have a warm streak of weather.  Today definitely wasn’t warm, the water was a chilly 58 degrees.  Our snook fishing was very good, and we caught some drums and a red too.  But my angler Jeff also got a nice juvenile tarpon!  This was a great fish and completed his backcountry SLAM (snook, redfish, tarpon).  I’ve been seeing quite a few baby tarpons in the areas we’ve been fishing, but of course it’s been cold overall so they haven’t been very active.  But hopefully in a few more weeks we’ll get some warmer weather and then we usually start catching some tarpon semi-consistently in February.  It’s definitely not expected to be red hot at that time, but if the water temps get in the mid 70s, you can have a shot at catching one or two if you put your time in.  I’ll be ready and waiting that’s for sure!  Tarpon season 2018 is almost here.  If you are wanting to book days in prime time (april – july) I suggest getting your plans set early.  The keys are open for business and mostly back to normal after IRMA, but there are still a few of the larger hotels closed.  So it’s best to try and get something set up ahead of time so you can make sure you find a room.  Anyways I’ll be back with more tarpon reports soon hopefully!  1 for 1

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

Got out with John and Tom today for a full day of fishing in the everglades.  We did a mixed bag trip as I’ve been doing often as of late.  But tarpon were one of the fish in the mixed bag.  I told them fishing for them had not been great, but there had been a few around with the warmer-than-usual conditions.  We had a good day overall catching a variety of things… plenty of sharks, some snook, some redfish, and limit of nice mangrove snappers.  But we did get one shot at a tarpon today too!  Unfortunately he did not stay on the hook for us we jumped him off straight away.  But the fish were still in the same area they had been the last week or so.  Did not see quite as many today as yesterday, but we did get a bite and yesterday we did not.  Anyways I’d been on a good streak of catching them lately so was due to miss one eventually.  Looks like it’ll be getting into the 60s tonight, and then slowly getting colder throughout week, with it possibly getting into the 50s by early next week.  That will likely shut the tarpon down for a while which is normally what happens in the winter time.  But we should still have plenty of good fishing for our usual cooler weather species such as redfish, drum, snook, mackerel, and more.  Be sure to check out my other website fishingislamorada.com for my daily updated reports while I am not tarpon fishing.  I’ll check back whenever I do some more fishing for the silver king in Islamorada!  0 for 1

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