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Great day with Brandon, Rob, and William! The boys wanted to do some tarpon fishing and I told them we’d still been catching a few. I hadn’t been in a few days and the last day I went we got chased back in from the rain and lightning. But I had a good report from yesterday so I was excited to get out there and check things out. We already had some bait stashed away that was in good shape so we just went with that and headed out early. The last couple days the winds been blowing but it’s swung around more northeast, as opposed to southeast, which is giving us a little blast of refreshing cooler air and also feels a bit like Fall which is great! This can often trigger the ‘fall bait run’ effect where we get a lot of baitfish and bigger predator fish moving back down the coast as it is cooling off further north and they are coming back down for the winter. Every year is different and I don’t think it’s really in full effect yet, but definitely had that feeling. Anyways we found a decent group of tarpon that were flopping around, cart wheeling, doing the usual tarpon thing when that is going on. Not a whole ton of fish, but a good enough group that we were able to get in on them. We caught it right at the tide change but still managed to hook three tarpon and landed them all! A couple smaller guys in the 20-30 lb range, and one decent one that was about 60 lbs. After that a good storm blew in and it started to pour for about 30 minutes. We fished through it and actually landed our last tarpon in the midst of it. We caught a few more sharks and then the weather had passed. The tarpon seemed to have thinned out after that. We ran and tried another area closer to home and first bait out we got a big monster snook close to 20 lbs! What a catch and awesome to see. We got some pictures and released her very healthy, snook is something I don’t like to kill on my boat especially with all the ones dying further north of us right now. She was over the slot limit anyways. After that we hooked a big something not sure what but it cut us off. Then we saw a good size tarpon roll behind the boat and within a few minutes, we hooked a nice 85 lber that gave us a great fight! After that things slowed down we fished there a bit more but didn’t do much. We tried one more area on the way home and did see one tarpon we tried to get set up near but no luck. Anyways a great day for the boys there is definitely still good fishing to be had here in Islamorada, FL. September and October can still be very good and you get the place to yourself. Off for a few days if anyone wants to go later this week I’m not booked until Thursday, looks like we’ll have a similar condition so it could be good!  4 for 4

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

Well we tried to get out tarpon fishing yesterday but the weather gods had other plans.  We left the dock early and the bay was clear though there were good chances of rain.  Normally we can dodge around it pretty good and much of the stuff we see offshore breaks up by the time it reaches us.  Today though that was not the case.  We looked around for bait for a bit which was a little tougher as it had disappeared from the area I found it the day before.  So we had to zoom back to another area where we did catch it pretty good but had to work at it.  By the time that was done we were two hours into our day with the hour ride into the backcountry.  We did see a couple tarpon in a channel nearby but as soon as we got our baits out we had to reel them up because storms were moving in.  I thought we might get lucky and the heavy rain would miss us but I was wrong.  We got swallowed up in it and had to bolt to Flamingo to hide out for 45 minutes or so with heavy rain and lightning cracking around us.  The heavy weather passed but the wind never laid down and it was blowing a solid 25mph after that.  My crew was a little scared of the lightning we saw and didn’t want to stick around for what could be more, and I told them it would likely be tough fishing with the wind cranking like crazy now and the storms having just blown through that often spook the fish for a while.  So we just decided to head back.  It did get nicer of course a far as the rain/lighting went, though it was blowing 30 by the time we hit the dock and there were still some showers passing around in the bay and nearby.  But that really rarely happens and I don’t know that I’ve ever really had to totally bolt on a trip out into the backcountry like that, but to be honest I was over it as I was totally soaked with my boots filled with water too. Have a few days off with some family in town now, but looks like we are suppose to have questionable weather through the weekend anyways.  But I’ll be back at it Sunday and then have some days open during the week if anyone wants to go.

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

Got out with Mark and Eddie today for a full day tarpon fishing trip.  Winds were still kicking pretty good but not too crazy.  We’ve definitely had a windy August overall which had made the fishing a little tougher but at least still OK.  Normally we look forward to typical calm weather in the summer, and the tarpon are much easier to spot and generally seem to be more plentiful on those slick days… but you gotta work with what you have.  Anyways we caught some bait early and looked in a few areas for tarpon.  Didn’t see a whole lot, so we went where I’d been having some luck the last few trips.  It’d been a few days since I’d been out though.  We didn’t see much there either, but set up and eventually saw a fish roll.  That was it though no bites but a few little sharks.  We made several moves without too much luck.  Then eventually we saw a good sign of tarpon some good splashes in the same area.  We got in there and soon had a good tarpon bite but unfortunately didn’t stay on the hook.  Right after that the other rod went off and zipped us which I believe was a tarpon too but not sure.  My fingers were crossed there was hopefully another fish there and luckily there was.  Mark caught his first tarpon after that a nice 35 lber!  We checked another area after that and then decided to trout fish for a little while which was OK we caught a good handful.  We then went back to the tarpon.  Didn’t see much in the first stop, and checked a few more channels.  Finally we thought we saw a good sign of fish on the bottom machine.  I set us up and soon Eddie hooked a nice 50 lber!  We got the fish boat side for some pictures and released him for another day.  After that we had 30 minutes or so left, the boys were pretty good each having caught a tarpon and there wasn’t really much time to realistically do much else.  So we took a nice ride in to keep the beating waves down and cool off a little.  But a great day and always nice to catch a couple tarpon, especially when it isn’t all that easy!  Look forward to fishing with these guys again soon.  2 for 4

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