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4/23/19 – Nice day with Chris, Scott, and Ray. We focused on tarpon and started early. No early action for us so we ran and fished our other live mullets. Lots of activity near day break. We had a few bites and a bunch of cheap shots, but just couldn’t get one stuck. Cudas kept eating them off too after the tarpon swatted them around. We kept with it and soon the fleet arrived. The action slowed down and a few boats hooked a fish then we got our turn landing a 50 lber. Also got a big nurse shark. After that we fished a bit more until the tide quit. We decided to go snapper fishing after that. Had to work at it but we got our limit of snappers and a few other things including a juvenile goliath grouper, redfish, and 4 juvenile cubera snappers. All in all not too shabby. Back after the silver Kings tomorrow! 1 for 3

4/24/19 – Awesome morning with return clients Todd, Farrah, Gray and Faith. We left early in search of tarpon. We tried nearby fishing some crabs early on but no luck again. We hit the bridges and first bait out it was game on before I could even close the bail! We hooked a nice 30 lber Gray landed. After that we got blown up several more times and missed a few more bites. Moved around and got into more fish. Steady action with lots of cheap shots and several more bites pulling drag, but just hard to hook ’em on the live mullets. Finally Gray got another one about an 80.lber on a sick surface bite grey hounding towards the boat! Landed that one, and then the fleet had shown up and things quietted down. We had a few more good bites, and hooked one fish we chased but lost after a few minutes. Eventually the tide quit and we decided to make a move. Found more happy fish and Faith got to catch her tarpon a nice little 40 lber. Back at the dock by 11, just an awesome morning I think we had over a dozen bites! When the weather gets nice seems like it’s game on! Back at it tomorrow.  3 for 12

Got out with Steven and Keegan today.  Yesterday we fished out in the backcountry and never really even put the baits out for tarpon as we didn’t see any.  Ended up having a tough day but we did manage a few redfish, a snook, some trout, snappers, and a big shark.  But overall not an easy one and was very muddy/nasty water from the weak cold front a day or two prior.  But today we decided to stay local and tarpon fish.  It was flat calm to start and then back to east later in the morning.  We went early in the dark as I wanted to do everything I could to get these guys a fish since we had a tougher day yesterday.  We got a nice one early on fishing our crabs in the dark, about a 75 lb fish for Keegan.  After that it started to get light and seemed like the early morning thing was over.  We saw a few fish out on the ocean that we casted a bait into but they spooked as it was so calm.  But cool to see.  We made our way to the bridges and had a great bite down there.  Through the last of the falling tide and then even on slack tide we had a handful of bites but broke the fish off or jumped them off.  Once the tide started rolling in, we moved around and then caught 4 more.  It was consistent action all through the trip and great to see!  April overall has been tougher fishing when I’ve been going, there seems to have been better night fishing but a little harder during the day.  But nice to see such a good bite.  Should be back at it tomorrow. Looks like we have some stable weather finally if the forecasts are correct, nice 10 to 15 mph out of the east for the week which should be ideal for tarpon fishing, maybe going a little south over the weekend but not cranking so it shouldn’t hurt things too much but that is still a little ways off so it may just stay nice, light, and out of the east like we like!

Good news too I think my new boat is done and should have it by weeks end and hopefully in service next week!  5 for 9

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

Got out with Mike and Will today for a 3/4 day.  We were after tarpon.  I had caught bait yesterday afternoon on the way home, so had some live ones in good shape and we decided to give it an early departure.  I like to get out early and go the extra mile doing that sometimes especially when fishing is tough.  It sort of paid off – we had our first and only bite within about 20 minutes.  Unfortunately the fish didn’t stay on the hook.  Conditions were pretty tough though, we had an absolutely ripping current with the near full moon.  Hard to keep baits out there.   Also the wind shifted and was blowing considerably southeast, so it was pushing the tide even harder.  We moved around and tried some spots in the bay where the current wasn’t so bad.  We saw a few fish in every spot, but just not our day.  Only saw one other boat catch one.  We ended up trying close to home for the last hour where I had some luck earlier this week, but not today.  Again several boats in there and didn’t see anybody get any action.

I’m off the next couple of days which I’m happy about, it’s gonna be full moon tomorrow night and then going west saturday as we get another late cold front.  Probably will make for some tougher tarpon conditions at least tomorrow.  Sunday looks nice right now they are saying lighter winds out of the north and the temperature isn’t suppose to drop too much.  Tarpon fishing is definitly a little tougher than normal right now for April, you’ll have your windows where it’s good but the rest of the time can be a lot of sitting and waiting.  And a lot of other boats around too so sometimes if you aren’t the lucky guy in the right spot, you are watching the action and it’s not a spectator sport!  Hopefully it’ll pick up though, looking at my yearly records the last April I had that was tougher, May ended up being a lot better so hopefully that’ll be the case.  0 for 1

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