Uncategorized

6/6/16 June Islamorada half day tarpon fishing

Got out for a half day today the winds were howling 25 mph out of the south with the front that is nearby.  I had Jim out with his family from Texas.  Luckily no rain.  I suggested cutting the day a little short with the conditions and it proved to be a good choice.  We found quite a few tarpon early on but not much action the first hour, but we knew they were there.  Once the tide started coming in we re-positioned and soon hooked a big old tarpon.  We landed him, got him on the leader several times, after a long battle though he broke us off in the bridge.  Later we hooked another tarpon and we got this one to the boat after a much shorter 10 minute fight, though the fish did almost spool us it was very close!  A 120 lb fish, nice one!  After that we jumped off another tarpon and caught a nice 100 lb sawfish, plus a big barracuda and a big jack were had in between.  All in all good fishing lots of action and a happy half day!  2 for 3

6616tarpon

6/5/16 Tarpon Fishing in Islamorada Florida Report

Got out with Don and Brandon today who have fished with me the last couple years.  We went into the backcountry tarpon fishing.  Was a little worried about the weather as we have a tropical system in the gulf that is suppose to be impacting us over the next few days, but today we got lucky no rain just a bit of wind.  Anyways we found a few tarpon in the first channel we fished but no bites we caught a few sharks.  Next stop there were some tarpon where we had found them yesterday, we jumped one but after that they seemed to have disappeared.  Frustrating!  Anyways we went to another channel and didn’t see much activity but soon after Brandon hooked and landed a nice 60 lb tarpon.  We tried a couple other spots after that bouncing around but not much else happening.  We went and caught a little bait after that and then tried some other channels when the tide had switched and started coming in.  Saw a few tarpon roll though we didn’t get a bite right away, we caught a few more sharks.  Then we had a chunk of ladyfish in the cooler I decided to put out and try, and low and behold we hooked a nice 90 lb tarpon a few minutes after that!  Don got to land him and then that was the end of the day, was glad to have gotten a couple!  Looks like weather may be an issue the next day or two, but will see what it looks like in the AM.  Hopefully if anything we can maybe get out for a half day fishing the local channels close by.  2 for 3

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

6/4/16 June Tarpon Fishing in the Florida Keys

Got out again with Dave & Dave for some tarpon fishing in the florida keys.  We had enough bait leftover again so we got right to fishing.  I tried a different channel where a buddy of mine had caught them good yesterday later in the day.  Saw a few rolling there but no dice, and not many fish really either.  I then ran to where we got them in the morning the previous day and boy things changed.  We saw one little group of fish roll a few times, but that was about it.  Was pretty calm too so I’m sure we would’ve seen some more activity if a slug of them were in there.  Anyways we had a couple sharks and that was it.  I then ran towards flamingo and we saw one roll as I was running.  I shut down quickly and looked around and saw several rolling in the area… just what I was hoping for!  We set up and had to move around a little bit, but eventually got them going.  We ended up catching three out of five in about 45 minutes, good fishing for sure!  All little guys in the 20-40 lb range.  After that we tried out off the beach again like the previous day, though no love just a few more shark bites.  Wind definitely picked up blowing 15-20 now and suppose to continue for the next several days plus a lot of rain forecast… We will see hopefully we can get out but fishing may get a little tougher for a few days.  3 for 5

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

6416tarpon