Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with Paul, Christie, and their son Jet over from Australia.  They have a fishing TV show over their called iFish and are big social media people as well.  My brother took them fishing for a few days and they went with me today and are going again on Monday.  We had bait already stocked up and headed out early.  Got on a good tarpon bite early.  Missed a double header right off the bat but did catch one of the fish!  A nice 75 lber for Jet.  After that we missed one more bite, and then dad had one on for a few minutes but unfortunately he jumped and threw the hook.  Things slowed down a little after that but we had some sharks including a big lemon.  We ran and made a move to try another channel where a buddy of mine was.  Saw a few fish but no bites though did get a few sharks here too.  After that we decided to mix it up.  Tried some areas for snook with no luck but did get a few big jack crevelle.  Then we found some snook on some shorelines and got some big trout and jacks there too!  A couple snook on bait and one on artificial – nice!  Then we saw some tarpon in the area and set back up.  We had a couple more bites jumping one fish and getting zipped by another.  Then we finally caught another Christie getting a nice 40 lber that we were able to get good pictures of right off the beach!  We headed home after that.  Great day with great folks hopefully day 2 is as productive!   Back at it tomorrow.  2 for 7

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: 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