Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Well all good things must come to an end and today unfortunately the streak of great fishing came to a screeching halt!  We didn’t blow the catch streak though and did manage to catch a tarpon at least.  We had a stiff west breeze and lots of thunderstorms around in the AM.  None of the fish much like a west wind in the backcountry, it blows onshore and mucks up the water.  Certain areas can be OK that are protected or super shallow, but not the stuff we regularly fish.  Anyways we made the run back and thankfully had bait already, as the bait dried up too due to the weather.  We looked hard in a couple channels and didn’t see much.  Though I did have a feeling one might be laying where we had caught some tarpon yesterday.  We set up and soon one rolled right behind us and we hooked him!  A nice 40 lber for Johnnie.  After that we got a big sting ray and that was it.  We tried another channel and got a sharpnose shark.  Then we tried out off the mainland and got a couple blacktips, that was all.  We looked in one of the creeks and found a bunch of small tarpon, but no action out of them.  They don’t typically respond well but figured it was worth a shot.  We then looked in a couple other areas and talked to a fellow guide who hadn’t had any luck with the tarpon.  We ended up finishing the day catching some trout which was actually pretty good fishing.  It looks like we’ll have this wind through tomorrow then it’ll be southwesterly but at least dying out to 5-10 mph so they may get happy again.  Back to it tomorrow I may change my game plan up we’ll see.  1 for 1

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

Got out with Wes, Derek, and Hagen today for a full day tarpon trip.  We had a two boat trip but unfortunately the other captain had a health issue but luckily was able to round up somebody else short notice.  Though they did some other stuff with the other group.  We headed out early and looked for tarpon in the area I’d been fishing the last few days.  Yesterday it seemed to slow down a little there, today it really was dead.  Also had a little more of a southwesterly wind not my favorite.  There were a handful of fish, but small packs that were zipping around very fast and just not really able to line up on them.  We fished for a bit and looked for a while longer all through there and didn’t see a whole lot.  Tried the other channel nearby too just blind fishing but no love aside from a few sharks.  We then ran towards some other areas and did run over a tarpon rolling.  I stopped and we looked around and we were all of a sudden in a pack of them.  We set up and ended up with a good rally of fish, landing 3 and then jumping off a couple others!  After that though about 30 minutes later, it was done with they moved on.  But a good little action packed rally.  We headed to flamingo where my buddy had seen some and had caught a couple.  We didn’t see much though eventually a few popped up, we had to give it some time but eventually got a bite and caught another 50 lb tarpon.  After that they were pretty much done with.  We caught a couple tripletails and some more sharks, didn’t see many tarpon we did fish another channel but not much there after that.  Back at it tomorrow.  4 for 6

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

Got out for Day 2 with Zack and his son Jacob.  We started with the same game plan as yesterday.  Found some bait early and got to fishing nearby there.  Not quite as many fish today they seemed to thin out somewhat, but still some definitely.  We got one right away and then sharks a plenty.  We made a move and not much, then further down we got in front of some good packs of fish that were rolling heavily.  We hooked a double header that we landed and then Jacob got a single nice 70 lb fish.  After that we moved again and Zack jumped a fish and then Jacob got another roughly the same size 75 lbs or so.  After that a buddy of mine came in and we decided to go look in some other spots.  We got a big goliath grouper on our light tackle which was cool, then saw a few tarpon in another area and jumped 1 and the sharks got u.  But Zack got a big lemon shark which was cool.  Then we got a cobia and a few more sharks on another spot and called it a day.  Still a banner day though after the last few days it feels kinda slow – guess I’ve been spoiled!  Back at it tomorrow hopefully it stays just as good really.  5 for 7

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