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Got out with repeat customer Irv and his buddy Billy.  Irv lives down here in the winter and has fished with me for quite a few years now, as does Billy.  We were able to make a last minute skip trip happen this coming week (leaving tomorrow) but luckily Irv was able to go today as we were suppose to go tomorrow.  Conditions looked great we had fairly calm winds and it’s gotten nice & warm lately – spring has sprung!  I was able to catch some bait Friday since I was showing one of my new captains a little about fishing and saved that for the day.  We got out early at 6:30 AM and made it back to the tarpon grounds quickly.  At first glance we didn’t see a whole lot… I spent some time rigging and scanning the horizon but alas, not much as far as visible fish jumping and splashing as they like to do.  Then we ran another couple miles north down the beachlines and bingo – huge tarpon airing out free jumping, sometimes 3, 4, even 5 at a time!  A few fly fisherman were in on them too but for the most part it was a lot of wide open water calling us!  We set up and had the last trickle of falling tide for an hour or so.  It was dead low tide but the current often runs about an hour or so after the level hits low.  Sure enough we got into some good groups of fish we could see them splashing and marked them on our fish finders.  We had to put a little time in and there was no by-catch, just sitting and waiting for a bite!  But we hooked into 4 good tarpon and landed all 4 of them.  Not monsters they were all 40 to 60 lbs… fun size as I like to say as you get a good fight and nice acrobatics but you aren’t pulling on some monster for an hour +, and you can often get good pictures by the boat as they’re more cooperative with that.  I think Irv landed 3 and Billy got 1.  We had a couple others grab the baits and just spit ’em out before we even knew what happened.  Once the tide turned the tarpon seemed to spread out a lot and then the sharks and other junk moved in.  We decided to give the tarpon a break and tried some large snook spots which was productive… we landed 4 big snook in the 15 to 20 lb range.  What an unbelievable finish to just an awesome day!  I don’t have too much left in March but I do have a few days open, and I still have a few dates left in ‘prime time’ April & May.  I have a feeling we’re on the verge of some epic fishing this  year as the water quality seems much improved in the backcountry and I guess call it just gut feeling but I think we’re due for a really good season.  One thing also I know the red tide up the coast is very bad right now and while it’s a terrible thing there, it sometimes leads to good fishing where we are as the fish don’t want to go north into that stuff.  Time will tell I suppose!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina

Got out just showing one of my young captains (Trent) a little more about tarpon fishing in Islamorada.  We did a bit of recon and were going over some strategies and such.  Found a good amount of bait nearby locally so that was good to see.  Mullet will likely start becoming the bait of choice as we get into March, April, and May.  We found a few rolling tarpon in a nearby channel and sure enough set up and hooked one within about 15 minutes!  Nice medium size fish around 40-50 lbs.  So that was good to see!  After that we just kind of did some looking around and didn’t end up putting the rods out again.  Didn’t see much for tarpon life around the bridges though we did find one other little channel further south that had a good load of tarpon laying on the bottom.  So there are definitely fish starting to show up and assuming we dont get too much more cold weather, you can have a good shot at catching some early season fish.  My young guys are hungry so doing an afternoon/early evening trip is a possibility and the nice thing then you really get the fishing grounds to yourself as not many guys are doing evening trips until late March/April.  So just a possibility and that is often available somewhat short notice so you can cherry pick conditions.  Anyways hopefully much more to come soon.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina

Well we had a few calmer days after the last cold front and slowly the water temps had been getting more & more in ‘tarpon’ range.  That’s usually 73ish degrees or so to have an OK shot.  I fished a couple days before this and we had given the tarpon a try both days but it was still on the chilly side (71 degrees) and both days we didn’t see a ton of tarpon, a handful no doubt but not the hundreds & hundreds we like to see on flat calm spring conditions.  Anyways on this day we found the mother load – thousands of tarpon airing out as far as you could see, and marking groups of 6, 8, 10 fish at a time coming by the boat occasionally.  We first drifted in to an area with a crab and pilchard out on the surface, and sure enough our crab got sucked off within 5 minutes!  We got tight on whatever it was and got a munched up crab back so we didn’t get the hook in them – possibly a permit which was on our wish list but definitely could’ve been a tarpon too.  Anyways after that we caught a nice cobia on a pilchard, and then we focused on tarpon more.  Had to jump around and stay with the schools of fish but we wound up getting a half dozen bites, not able to keep the hooks in them really good but finally we did stick one.  That one went through the leader on us early but then later on we got one that we got to the boat and up boatside for pictures.  A few more jumped off but it was pretty good action plus plenty of sharks to keep us busy.  The winds were flat early on but they picked up as the day went on getting to 10-15 out of the north which is breezy in the backcountry.  But the tarpon didn’t seem to mind though the next couple days over the weekend it blew 25 and got slightly chillier so it may have shut them off temporarily but I think the next calm day or at least light southeasterly wind day it’ll be game on again!  So I’m thinking it’ll be an early start to the season as is the usual case in recent years.  February can offer some great opportunities plus you still get plenty of other options as well.  I’ve just opened my fishing dates for myself personally through May, so if you want to get something on the calendar I suggest doing so ASAP as I’m only fishing 3 days a week myself.  Though all my other captains are available for advanced bookings whenever available.

I am honoring my old 2022 rates for February as well so another good reason to come early!  However starting in March I’m going to a new rate, only offering full day bookings, and am reserving the right to bring along either my camera guy or one of my mates in training.  Though for the added cost there are some perks such as getting cool video content that I can share with you as well as often create a YouTube video for our channel if we get good enough content.  Obviously having a mate is helpful onboard too if thats the case.  And also being I’m only fishing a limited number of days each week, I often (not guaranteed!) can move days around if the weather is bad or something else comes up – as this is often hard to do in season since everyone is so busy and booked every day.  So you can look at it as a little bit of added insurance.  So let’s go fishing and if you have a dream of catching a trophy tarpon and getting it mounted lemme know too!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina