Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Another great week of tarpon fishing here in Islamorada in May!  We had some heavy winds early in the week and last weekend after we had a long stretch of flat calm in earlier May.  I did not fish Monday but Tuesday it was blowing a good 20 knots and she was rippin’!  I had Mike and Steve who’ve fished with me a for a few years now.  We had the end of the incoming tide and we ran down to the bridges.  We found some areas where the waves weren’t super super bad and found plenty of fish.  They were happy I think we ended up hooking 6 or 7 and we landed a couple fish but weren’t able to get hands on them.  That is always extra difficult in that kind of wind but a good time and lots of action.  Wednesday I had Steve down for the first time fishing and it was similar conditions though slightly less windy though still blowing pretty good.  We had similar fishing though we got hands on one fish and landed 4 more to the leader before popping off.  So an excellent bite again and great to see this late in the season!  Thursday the winds let up somewhat but it was blowing more out of the south and the bite got a little bit tougher.  We ended up having three bites and landed a fish for Sterling we got pictures of and had a leader release on another that popped off after a good 45 minute battle.  And the last one beat us into the bridge very quickly.  Bait had started to get difficult that day but we had enough to fish with thankfully.  Friday we had to keep our fingers crossed on bait it got slick calm and there hadn’t been much bait around.  We had an order in with the mullet guy and we went out and spent an hour looking for bait early.  Didn’t see much but we finally came across a little bit in the middle of the bay but with the slick calm conditions it was near impossible to get on them.  We caught a couple ladyfish which we actually got a couple tarpon bites on though!  The mullet man thankfully came through he had to go all the way up to the stretch in Key Largo to find bait but he got me, Steve, and the other boat in our group a dozen each.  We finally got down to the bridge and fishing around 8:30 and thankfully it was actually pretty good we ended up hooking 5 tarpon landed 3, getting one good one to the hand with the Charleston crew.  The other boats in the group also got a couple of face grabs as well and I think all 9 of the guys involved got to pull on a tarpon at least.  So still some pretty good fishing overall in Islamorada but as mentioned the bait is getting to be the tough thing.  We are also coming up on the full moon so that may shuffle the deck so to speak but we’ll see what happens.  We just did not have much bait in the local islamorada and lower matecumbe area this year so now that it’s drying up it’s hard to find.  I’m sure the mullet guys are going to stop here soon as it’s just not worth it for them anymore either.  But we may start fishing more in the backcountry here soon where we can catch bait or catch other things to use for bait on rod and reel if we absolutely need to.  Every season and every year is different with the things you do and the tactics and I can tell that will be the difficult thing here the next few weeks but theres still plenty of fish around.  We do start usually catching bait more consistently in July in the backcountry and fishing for the resident tarpon back there but maybe that’ll get better here in June for us too.  I’ve got a few days in mid June open myself before we leave for Tennessee for a month, and Capt. Steve and Capt. Luke have dates too.  An evening trip can be an option for tarpon too and fishing with the dolphin carcasses is something worth try and those are often easy to obtain for a later evening trip when the offshore boats get in.  Those captains are at the ready if you want to try a trip like that.

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

Alright another week down this one it got pretty windy again after we had a little over 2 weeks of almost all flat calm weather!  Monday it was ripping pretty good a steady 18 knots or so.  I had return customer Jon with me.  We fished the bridges and today it was a little slower.  Had slack tide first thing early in the AM though it was already starting to trickle in.  I did not mark many fish and that may of been because of the slack tide, sometimes they don’t really line up and are just kind of floating around when there’s no current.  Though we did start to find a few more in the middle of the bridge.  We set up and put in work.  Had to jump around a good bit for a couple of hours but eventually we got a bite.  It ran for for a good bit and we gave chase.  Fought it for 5 minutes or so but then we ended up pulling the hook unfortunately.  About an hour later we hooked another one and it made a few leaping jumps but it ran all the way around the bridge pilling and made one last huge jump and then went through our leader.  So tough break.  Those were the only for sure tarpon bites we had.  Day 2 I had Job and his buddy Cam.  We decided to make a far run into the backcountry which I hadn’t tried yet this year though last year I fished that area for a few weeks when things got tough around town.  Though we did not see a huge group of fish up there though thankfully we did find one group when we first got there.  Cam caught one straight away though after that they kind of broke up.  We checked a few other areas in that zone but did not see much.  We ended up coming back to where we started and just put some baits out without even seeing much and we did end up getting one more tarpon so that was nice.  We decided to run back towards home and tried a few other areas.  We did run into a huge school of snook which was pretty cool and we found those same snook in that same area last year so really interesting.  Job caught a huge one close to 20 lbs!  We did find a small school of tarpon in one other area but no bites out of them and we caught a few sharks.  Then Wednesday the winds laid down slightly though it was still blowing a good 15.  We found some tarpon around another bridge that I hadn’t been fishing as much lately and we hooked a couple right away and landed one.  Great way to start the day at least.  Once the tide quit we ran down to the big bridge and again put in a little work.  We ended up with a couple more bites down there and hooked a monster that Jack fought for an hour and we got near boatside but eventually went through the leader.  But a little more active day at least with 4 tarpon bites and we did get a goliath grouper and a couple of mutton snappers too.  Thursday I had Lee, Allen and Allens son Nate out.  We opted to go in the backcountry and had a decent day back there with reds, snook, drum, and jumped a small tarpon.  Friday they wanted to give the big tarpon a try and it was phenomenal fishing again!  We had falling tide most of the morning and the fish were biting.  We ended up getting 9 or 10 bites I think and we got a couple fish boatside but weren’t able to get any pictures unfortuantely.  And had several more we fought to the leader that jumped off or popped off.  But about as good as it gets which was nice to see as it was a little tougher earlier in the week.  Still plenty of fish around and I’m thinking it will stay strong into June here.  Capt. Luke fished a bit this week too and happy to report he’s landed tarpon on every trip he’s had so far, so what an awesome start for him!  He’s got days available and is offering evening trips too.  So if you want to get out last minute that’s a good option for you.

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

Well another busy week here fishing for tarpon this May in Islamorada, Florida.  It was great weather again we had a little overcast Monday with slight drizzle but with the low light conditions it made for superb tarpon fishing.  We had the bridges to ourselves not sure if the chance of rain had people spooked but it wasn’t too bad at all.  We ended up having a high hookup ratio and landed 5 fish and missed only one.  So great day with Casey and Davita.  The next day I had Casey, Nathan, and Wyatt and it was a nice sunny day slick calm.  Unfortunately a lot more fishing pressure too there were probably about 30 boats down there so word had gotten out!  Fishing was a little tougher we had to work at it we ended up catching one right off the bat which was nice but after that had to grind for a couple hours more for a bite.  Eventually we did get a couple more right near the tide change but they ended up breaking us off in the bridge straight away.  Once the tide fell we jumped around some more and had 3 more ‘short’ bites where the tarpon grabbed it and ran for a few seconds but never got the hook.  You can tell when the fish get finicky they’ll do that short bite thing more and likely because all the pressure.  But ample bites anyhow though we only capitalized on one of them.  Wednesday I had Zak, Nathan, and Wyatt and we had a little tougher day overall.  Had to really grind all day and it was work but we did end up catching a couple tarpon and possibly missed one or two more that zipped quick like we were talking about.  But got two boatside and good pictures of one for Nathan to finish the day.  Thursday and Friday I had Gary and Kim who fished with me several years ago.  We had great fishing both days!  Thursday it was a bit windy with some west wind kicking up pretty good but I figured a little change might not be a bad thing.  Sure enough we ended up getting some good bites in the morning, catching a couple tarpon and losing a couple others in the bridge.  We also had a couple other pick-ups we missed but not bad overall I think with 6 or 7 bites.  Then Friday we could do no wrong we ended up catching 5 tarpon and getting two up boatside for good pictures and leader released the others.  Kim was happy to battle a nice 90 lb tarpon for over an hour and got it to roll over for a nice picture.  What a battle and I tell people getting that picture is a whole other battle than simply getting the leader on one.  But good job!  So all in all a great week of fishing hopefully it’ll continue here a while longer.  I think it will as this year we had a late start with the late cold weather so hoping June will still be good fishing for us.

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