Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Gave the tarpon a break yesterday but fished for them some today.  I had John and Jan two repeat clients from last year, who had me yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  We caught some pilchards to start our day and had some other bait leftover from yesterday.  We tried for some snook and smaller tarpon around a few islands but no luck with that to start the day.  We found a few medium size tarpon and sharks in one of the channels, had a couple bites out of the tarpon but they didn’t stay buttoned unfortunately.  We then ran and tried another channel, and found a good number of fish pushing in with the hard incoming tide.  We set up and caught a big ray, then a blacktip, then finally got a nice 85 lb tarpon!  After that we caught a few snook around one of the islands and called it a day.  Nice to see some tarpon in a couple different backcountry spots, hopefully they will be filling in for the summer now and fishing will get a little more consistent back there.  1 for 3

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

Day 2 with Ronald we were after tarpon again.  Yesterday we struck out we had one shot all day and we missed it unfortunately.  Today we left early and I obtained some bait yesterday afternoon, but we also came across a good school of bait on the way out and made some throws on that as well.  We ran for the deep ‘glades hoping for glory, but we got there after almost a two hour run and… nothing!  Did not see the schools of tarpon that were there a couple days ago.  We looked around hard, fished a bit, but no love.  We had to backtrack then and I was feeling the pressure.  But we got lucky and found a load of fish in one of the canals!  Usually these guys are fairly hard to get to bite, but there were just sooo many that I figured we’d just put the time in and see what happened.  Plus we didn’t see many anywhere else yesterday in the backcountry.  Not much action at first with the last of the incoming tide.  But we moved around and found a big school in another area.  I was almost about to start trying to catch some smaller baitfish that may of worked better for them, but they weren’t catchable yet, so we waited.  Once the tide started falling we got bit!  We got one to the boat that didn’t stay on for pictures, then missed another.  Then we caught one that was good for pictures!  Not huge guys but both 20-30 lbers.  We then went to another area and got another 20 lber, and had one eat a live mullet but didn’t get the hooks in him.  Anyways what a great flurry of action and awesome landing three tarpon after a couple days where fishing was very tough!  3 for 5

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

Well it slicked out today and I thought it was going to be one of those epic days…  But not so for us!  I had Ronald and his wife and we ran out into the backcountry.  They got their a little later then I had wanted to I changed my plans a bit but figured it’d still be a good bet.  But there were just not many fish at all out back anywhere… I think they must’ve moved out to spawn or something.  We checked quite a few areas, and I was in touch with several other guides too.  Only saw a handful of fish in a couple spots, and when I say a handful I mean just two or three!  We did have decent shark action at least, and got a nice triple tail on a GULP shrimp while waiting for tarpon.  We finally got one bite in the last hour of the day, though unfortunately it didn’t stay buttoned and spit the hook and bait straight away.  Another boat my buddy caught one next to us just before that.  Anyways hard fishing with perfect conditions.   I heard there were a lot of fish locally around town, but everybody said they were acting funny and not biting well either.  Doing the daisy chaining, all balled up looking like they were getting ready to spawn and such.  Anyways hopefully it’ll get better in our areas soon.  I have the same crew again tomorrow we are planning on the early departure, might make the long run to see if those fish are where they were yesterday!  0 for 1

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