Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with my regulars Sarah and Barry who are over from Scotland.  We did the early morning deep everglades run as I told him it’d been very good the last several days.  Unfortunately today though it was a different ball game!  There were a few fish back there – nothing like what we saw yesterday though.  We moved a few times and I thought we’d of gotten a bite, but they did not want to play.  We hooked several sharks and sting rays and that was it.  After a couple hours I figured it wasn’t gonna happen.  We back tracked and caught a few trout and jacks on our light gear.  Then we found a few tarpon in one of the channels that I normally fish in the summer time.  This was good to see we caught a nice 60 lber for Sarah and some triple tails as well and a few more sharks.  I had seen one roll in the channel yesterday so I figured it might be worth it to take a look.  This is good news and hopefully it means some summer time fish will get in their usual haunts.  Funny how quickly things can change back there though.  1 for 1

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

Got out with Ross, Mike, and Jordan today for a full day of tarpon fishing.  They were part of a large group down from Massachusetts who have fished here before.  My guys wanted tarpon and were good to go a little early so we did that.  We headed out and caught some bait on the way plus had a few live ones we brought.  Fishing was pretty epic about as good as it gets.  Tarpon everywhere and the boys each caught one in the first 20 minutes it was kinda crazy.   I honestly lost count of bites but it was up there, I think we landed about 8 or so that we got on the leader anyways and probably lost another 8 or so.  We also had some big sharks and even had a shot at a permit floating by.  Made a cast with a crab but he was uninterested.  Permit can show up in the gulf waters where we find tarpon often in the summer.  Anyways it was a fantastic morning and we wrapped things up around 9:30 AM as we had caught enough.  Don’t know how much longer this will last but it’s been really good.  I hope that some of the other areas get a little better soon, I think in July they will.  But will keep sticking with this for the time being!  8 for 16

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

P.S. Again this are small tarpon under 40 inches so we are allowed to lift them up for a quick picture.  We don’t let them hit the deck or wipe their slime off, and drop them back in the water revived quickly for a healthy release afterwards.

Got out for the last day with Ron and Charlie.  We opted for the deep ‘glades run again because it’s been the best thing going for me lately.  Today we were lucky it got even better than yesterday, seems like each day has been better and better!  We had a few boats ahead of us there, I think it was the last day of a fly tournament.  But we stopped in on some fish away from everybody.  Put our lines out for a bit but didn’t get a bite at first stop.  We looked inside where one of the fly guys had left, and didn’t see anything really.  We went back out where we were, and then we were surrounded by fish!  It got pretty fast and furious and we kind of lost track of things.  But we ended up getting three tarpon to the hand, and a couple more to the leader that jumped off or pulled the hooks but got technical releases on.  We also got a big 12 lb snook which was awesome.  Had a double header tarpon as well as the snook and tarpon at the same time.  Unfortunately one of the tarpon on the double came off boatside so we couldn’t get the pic.  Anyways just crazy good action, so much fun!  When the tide turned I think we jumped one more tarpon off and then the sharks moved in.  Big lemon sharks.  The tarpon were pretty much gone then, we looked around for a lap but didn’t see much.  We finished the day catching a bunch of trout on our artificials.  Tomorrow I have a group trip so it’ll be standard departure time and I don’t think I’ll be doing this, will be good to give them a break for a day I think.  But likely back at it Saturday with my regular customers Sarah and Barry who are down from across the pond in Scotland.  Great way to end three days with Ron and Charlie, I think they might be spoiled now though!  5 for 11

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

P.S. Again all tarpon pictured are under 40 inches so we are allowed to pick them up for photographs.  Though of course we are very careful to not wipe off slime, drop them on boat, and release them healthily to fight again another day.