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Got out with return customer Dave and his buddy Bill today down from Miami.  We headed out early in search of bait.  Full moon and bright moonlit sky for the ride, was nice but I knew can be funky for the fishing.  The tarpon I think often feed hard in the middle of the night sometimes then and are a little unresponsive during the day.  One of the only things you can predict ahead of time.  But can still be worth going so we gave it a shot.  We found a ton of bait so that was nice, a few tarpon chasing them too but we didn’t fish there.  Ran near where we’d been finding bigger schools of fish.  Not as much there today but a few.  We set up where I thought some were and we were rewarded with a nice 55 lber for Bill to start!  We set back up and moved around a little, saw quite a few fish but they didn’t respond as well.  We moved out further eventually chasing a handful we saw but just no more biters, think the moon definitely had ’em acting weird.  Eventually a lot of fish were around us rolling everywhere.  We kept at it hard and just couldn’t get a response, I talked to a couple other people and same story with them.   We were glad we had gotten 1 right away.  Eventually we hooked a big monster 300 lb bull shark that dragged us a few miles away.  We caught him and saw a bunch of tarpon where we ended up, so we set back up.  These fish seemed in a different mood, just giving a different look on the surface.  It was slick calm so we could see them a ways away.  We got bit right away, and Dave got a nice 70 lb fish!  Alright we were in business it seemed.  But as soon as we got back to fishing after landing the tarpon, it seemed to quiet down.  A few tarpon still around but not as many, and they trickled out it seemed like.  The sharks bit us up lots of blacktips.  We moved on after that checking some areas further west where the tide had changed and was starting in.  Didn’t see much and thunderstorms were starting to build.  It was almost time to go so I said we’d check one more spot in another channel on the way home.  Low and behold we saw a few tarpon roll as soon as we pulled in.  Set up and it looked pretty good, nice clean water with a good incoming tide.  Soon a  few rolled behind us, and Dave hooked another 80 lber as the thunder and lightning were rumbling behind us!  We landed him quickly and got him up for pictures actually.  Then took off and called it a day.  Had to work for the 3 bites we got but we made them all count even getting all 3 to the hand, and all nice size fish for this time of year.  Back at it tomorrow looks like the winds will be picking up a little and decent chance of thunderstorms but normal summer time weather just not as calm.  Hopefully the bite will get a little better as we get away from the moon.  A few more days I’ll be at it then off on vacation for the first week of August.  3 for 3

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

Got out with Andrew Forbes and his family today for a 3/4 day trip.  They were leaving it up to me as far as what to do, wanting to either do a half day of ‘rod bending’ or tarpon fishing which I told them would take a little more time.  The conditions got right yesterday afternoon so I said it looks good for that and they were game.  We headed out early, beautiful day slick calm back there.  We found some bait took a couple spots to get on it right but we did and loaded up.  We then looked around where we found all the tarpon yesterday afternoon.  They were waiting for us so that was good!  Sharks got us a bunch in the first stop though tarpon were rolling pretty good nearby.  We moved around and then soon got a nice 100 lb tarpon!  After that things quieted down, but the tarpon were definitely around.  We had one grab a bait and jump sideways throwing the bait out.  Then we had another zip us real hard and drop the bait as well.  Hook one that we got to the boat real quick and then took off, thinking it was a shark, and then he jumped and spit it but we did get him to the leader for a technical release.  They were beating us up!  After that we jumped one more fish I think and then caught another one finally to the boat for pictures!  A few other sharks including a nurse shark and some big old catfish.  By 11:00 the tide quit and it was time to go.  But great action and three tarpon releases not too bad!  Looks like it should be fairly nice though the weekend, then perhaps a bit of wind next week.  At least for now it looks like it’ll be more southeasterly wind instead of southwest like we had a few days ago, that was terrible!  Hopefully the tarpon won’t mind, I’ll miss the slick calm like we had today for sure.  3 for 6

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

Got out with Clark and his dad Dwight for a full day of tarpon fishing.  We headed out early in search of bait as I was fresh out after staying close to home the last couple days.  We still had a little nasty southwest wind, but it laid off somewhat from yesterday and got nicer as the day went on and was swinging more south/southeast by days end.  To start we didnt’ see much for bait and we looked in several areas.  I missed them though and my buddy called me and got them good in one of the channels we did not go through.  He was nice enough to make a throw for us which saved us for sure.  We tried some channels in the back, didn’t see a whole lot but did catch a few big lemon sharks.  Finally saw a tarpon roll and moved nearby but no bites.  Tide was still falling and we checked another channel.  Saw a little activity on the surface but not sure what it was, after a bit another shark and then we definitely saw a tarpon roll, followed by another a little later and then another.  Seemed that there were a few.  We moved around a couple times and did get lined up ahead of some but they didn’t want to play.  The tide about quit and we ran further west to try another area where the tide was coming in now.  More sharks here several nice blacktips, thought we may of had some tarpon going by but not 100% sure.  No bites though.  We did look around more and found some more bait which we got one good shot on and caught a dozen.  We then ran back near where we started the morning, hoping that with the tidal change those handful of fish would get more responsive.  We stopped short though as we saw some good looking activity in a normal tarpon haunt.  As soon as we slowed down I knew we were in the mother load!  We put a couple baits out and got a shark right away and then Dwight got a nice 40 lb tarpon!  We fought him and Clark hooked a smaller 25 lber right away after that but he spit the hook.  We landed Dwights fish and got some pictures.  Then the sharks started to tear us up.  I could see the big body of fish seemed to be moving so we followed pursuit and my buddy from this morning had joined us as I had to tell him the fish were there as he gave us bait.  We got reset and then after 10 minutes hooked another nice 55 lb tarpon!  Clark caught this one, a great battle and nice jumps.  Clark was definitely thrilled to catch his first tarpon after going a couple trips years ago without even getting a bite, which can happen unfortunately.  After that the fish seemed to have moved further on, we tried to get lined up on them again and did get around a few but no more bites just some sharks.  After that it was about the end of the day, a park ranger stopped us to give us a safety check.  We tried one more spot on the way home for 15 minutes but no love.  Anyways good to see a big group of tarpon showing back up we must’ve caught them right as they were coming in.  They definitely were not settled in but with the wind going back southeasterly and getting nice tomorrow, it could be game on!  Never any guarantees in fishing though, you got to get out there and just try!  2 for 3

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