Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

5/28/18 – Got out with Dave and his family down from Alaska.  We fished for bonefish most of the day, stake-up fishing from a dead boat with shrimp.  It was a banner day we landed 8 bonefish!  We did try tarpon just for the last hour or so in one of the local channels.  It was blowing 25 mph and nasty so I didn’t want to dedicate the day to it.  But we didn’t get a bit though we did catch a shark and a bluefish.  0 for 0

5/28/18 – The first nice days we’ve had in a long time.  It was still overcast with some slight drizzle, but it was just a light 10 mph out of the south that slicked out during some periods.  We ran way into the backcountry looking for tarpon.  But we found an absolute mess of mud and seaweed due to the tropical storm a couple days ago.  I was hoping my further area would have been up the coast far enough that it didn’t get brutalized by the conditions but I was wrong.  We did see a couple tarpon there but not enough worth trying to fish for in my opinion.  We backtracked and tried some other backcountry channels, one looked OK not too crazy muddy, but never had a sniff of anything and we fished it hard.  Did see one tarpon roll here.  We tried another channel and same thing but didn’t see any sign of life at all.  Another channel we drove through and looked hoping to see a roller or two, but nothing.  The seaweed looked horrendous here so I figured it wasn’t even worth trying.  At that point we decided to run back and try near Islamorada.  Saw a couple fish in a couple spots, but literally just a couple and no bites out of them.  I got a couple phone calls and texts of people asking where they were biting, So I knew it had to be tough.  Anyways we looked around and fished several other areas without much luck.  The sargasm weed was horrible in a few spots due to the storm making it almost unfishable, and the water was definitely chalky and mixed up due to the storm as well.  Anyways hopefully after a few more days the water will clear up somewhat, and maybe after this full moon some more fish will show up.  We definitely need another push of fish but we had such a good early season, sometimes this time of year gets tough when that happens!  0 for 0

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

5/25/18 – Got out for a 3/4 day we planned on a full day but with weather and bait being tough we opted to start with a half day and then extended it.  Bait was hard we tried to catch some without much luck and the bait guy called me a little later and was able to hook us up.  We fished around town saw a few tarpon early in one spot but no bites though did get a few sharks.  After that we tried near home and got into some nice jack crevelles and some small groupers on our light tackle.  No tarpon sighted here.  Tried another channel with no luck and then got a call that a few fish were biting back at one of the bridges.  We opted to stay a little later then but got down there and it wasn’t easy fishing.  Ripping current and the seaweed was very bad so you had to constantly check your baits.  A few fish were behind a couple of the boats but that seemed to be the only ones, we moved around and tried to get as close as we could but never had any interest.  After that we tried one more channel near home and got poured on and decided to call it a day.  But at least we had some action with other things.  0 for 0

5/26/18 – Nasty forecast today 100% chance of rain and fairly windy due to the tropical storm Alberto.  But we snuck out at 6 and it looked fairly clear but a nice cell of rain formed right as we left.  We avoided that one and fished where we started the day before.  Saw a few fish again in the same area, but this time we moved in and got a bite!  Caught a nice 90 lb tarpon, didn’t get good pics as it started to absolutely pour on us and we couldn’t see hardly 100 feet off the boat.  We landed the fish but he wouldn’t roll over boatside for a picture, so eventually he popped the line.  But my customers did get a little video of the fight and a few jumps so that was good.  We also caught a sting ray and bonnet head shark.  Called it a day after that as the rain didn’t quit but it did lighten up a little, enough to see to get home!  Glad to be on the board again hopefully fishing will get a little better overall after the full moon here and maybe our summer time fishery will start to get more consistent back in the everglades.  1 for 1

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

Got out with Howard and Jating again for Day 2 today.  We doubled down and went for the everglades run again.  Hoped with the light winds this AM it’d be a different story from yesterday.  Stopped and checked a couple places along the way, almost set up there but didn’t see enough to hold my interest though did see a tarpon or two.  We got back to where we wanted after that, saw a fish right away.  We set up and got a shark.  Then soon after that Jating hooked a nice 55 lb tarpon!  Good battle and we got it to the boat but didn’t stick around for boatside pictures.  Anyways we were thrilled to get one and after that we didn’t get another tarpon bite.  Good action with some big sharks though, some big blacktips and lemons.  After that the tide slowed and we moved on.  Did some light tackle stuff after that and had good action, tried one other spot for tarpon but didn’t see much though did get a few smaller sharks.  Back at it tomorrow bait has been tough so hopefully can round some up in the AM.  1 for 1

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