Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with Michel and Nico down from Minnesota today for a day of tarpon fishing.  They are also fishing with me on Saturday.  We headed out early and caught some bait out back.  Found some big balls of mullet and loaded up real nice.  We ran to where I had found some tarpon a couple days ago as I had yesterday off but I heard the fish were still in that area.  We found them there not quite as thick as a few days ago but definitely a little body of them.  Nico hooked up pretty quickly and landed a nice 25 lber.  Dad got a shark and then Nico got another one about the same size after that again!  We got a few more sharks then moved around a bit.  Nico got a cobia off the bottom!  Then we hooked a double header!  Michel had a big 85 lb fish and Nico had a 40 lber.  We got Nicos up quickly and kind of just kept him in the water as we chased around the bigger one.  We fought him for a good 45 minutes and got him on the leader several times, but the fish would just not give up.  I really wanted to try and get a cool double header picture with a smaller and bigger tarpon.  But just didn’t happen unfortunately we eventually pulled to hard and the line snapped coming out of the rod tip where it joins the leader.  But a legal catch none the less.  After that things slowed down and we moved out to the gulf and caught quite a few cobias, a pompano, and a few jack crevelles.  Great day overall hopefully it continues.  Looks like we have steady east breeze the next several days, not gonna blow crazy but 10-15 mph it sounds like.  Shouldn’t be too bad but won’t be slick calm.  4 for 4

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

Got out with John, Jude, and Jim today three youngsters from Texas.  It was a group trip and their uncle and his boys were on the other boat.  It was a marina booking so I hadn’t talked to the crew beforehand but they were not up for going early as is my usual routine this time of year.  They wanted to have action with whatever and hoped to maybe catch a tarpon.  So I said no problem for the more serious anglers the early start is always what I recommend now but luckily I had some leftover bait so I said we’d have a shot anyways.  We bent the little rod to start and that was good action with trout, snapper, and ladyfish.  Then we tried a channel for tarpon.  Didn’t see much to start but did catch a couple sharks.  Then some fish popped up and we moved in on them.  We put a little time in and then jumped one tarpon, then we hooked and landed a nice 25 lber!  After that they seemed to disappear.  I was happy though we put it together even with the late start.  We tried a spot for some cobias after that in the gulf with no luck.  Then we were going to catch some bigger sharks and caught a tripletail.  In the shark area though we found a ton of tarpon!  I had not seen tarpon here in this spot like this in a couple years so it was great to see.  Larger size fish and lots of them.  We slide in and soon after we jumped another tarpon, then we caught a nice 80 lber!  After that the fish seemed to move around a little, but they settled back in and about 45 minutes later we caught another on the change of the tide!  So all three boys landed a tarpon – just great!  We caught a few more blacktip sharks and then called it a day.  We definitely lucked out and thankfully I had enough leftover bait to make it happen.  But the big deal about leaving early a lot of times is catching bait – there isn’t anyone to buy it from and sometimes if you aren’t out there at daybreak, you ain’t gonna catch it!  I’m off tomorrow for my birthday and then back at it on the 5th.  Hopefully some of these fish stick around!  3 for 5

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

Got out with Jason and his sons Brendan and Brody today.  They fished with me several years ago and had a great time.  We left out early today and made a run into the deep ‘glades.  The tarpon fishing around the other normal summer areas had slowed down a little the last few days as we had some nasty southerly winds.  Today it was back northeast but I figured i’d give it another day to settle out and wanted to see what was way back there.  The guys were down to try and we made our run.  Found a big group of tarpon early and we set up.  Brody hooked up straight away.  He fought the fish well and we got a technical release as we got the wind-on leader to the tip, but he charged away from the boat afterwards and ended up jumping and throwing the hook.  After that the tarpon really dissappeared.  It was amazing as we were surrounded by fish but they up and left within 20 minutes or so.  We did move around and managed to get another one for Brendan.  This one we got to the boat for some pictures.  After that though it went real quiet.  That’s why I get up and go early sometimes it can change in a hurry on you especially in this area.  After that we tried a few snook spots with no luck.  Then we ran into the gulf and had the right conditions for some permit fishing.  We managed to catch a couple permit which was very nice, and a few jack crevelle and sharks on our light tackle.  Great day!  I’m back at it tomorrow but sounds like I have a family style trip and they don’t want to leave early, so may be more generic rod bending and some sharks, but maybe we’ll get lucky and get a tarpon.  2 for 2

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