Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

I had return customers Matt Newman and his son Zack out today.  They wanted to try for tarpon and snook.  I told them we’d been getting a few tarpon, and had some luck with snook yesterday but may be different today with the wind going more southerly.  We caught bait early and headed out back.  I went to a new area where I had a report there was a lot of fish.  It proved true there were a ton of tarpon around!  We got bit pretty quick and missed our first couple opportunities but soon Matt had a nice 100 lb tarpon on he landed!  Then it was Zacks turn he had a couple more bites and landed both fish, but one had gotten wrapped up in a tree limb or something though we did get the leader on him before he broke off for a technical release.  By 10:30 or so though things seemed to quiet down.  The tarpon quit showing and we had a couple big shark bites that broke us off.  After that we tried a few snook areas but didn’t have any luck with that unfortunately.  But overall great day with three big tarpon landed and missed a few more.  I heard it was very good locally around town too today, which is good news as I have some shorter half day and 3/4 day trips coming up.  3 for 7

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

Got out with Ricky Walker and his son David today along with my dad.  Ricky used to do a fishing TV show over in Europe which my dad had done several shows with him 25 years ago.  Was good to have him on the boat.  We mixed it up and did a few different things but tried tarpon early on.  No luck first thing we fished locally and didn’t get a bite.  So we caught more bait and headed out into the backcountry which was a good move as it seemed to be crazy around town being a sunday later on when we came home.  We jumped a tarpon first thing back there and caught several big sharks including some lemons, blacktips, and a monster bull.  We then found some tarpon up inside some creeks and caught David his first one, about a 45 lber!  We had one other bite that we missed and then we caught some snook and a big trout the rest of the day.  Lots of fun!  1 for 3

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

Got out with John and his son Mike for a full day today.  The guys fished on the party boats the last couple days and had fun.  We ran into the backcountry and got an early start.  I had the day off yesterday so I loaded up on bait.  Didn’t find much in the first stop, saw one tarpon roll and we set up but didn’t get a bite.  But did get a few blacktip sharks.  Tide was dying so we kept moving on.  Saw a few more tarpon at the next stop and had a bite with the first bait in the water.  John had him on for a few seconds but unfortunately he threw the hook on a jump.  Saw a couple more fish and looked like it might be good fishing but unfortunately no more tarpon bites there.  We did catch a nice triple tail that floated by.  We did catch a few more black tips and a big nurse shark 3 or 4 different times!  We made a few moves but no more luck with tarpon.  We tried to switch gears and catch a few trout and ladyfish, which we did get a few but that was it.  Was hoping we may see some tarpon in that area but did not.  We ran back and tried another area, and had a few more big sharks where we got a big bull and hooked several big lemon sharks too.  We did get one more tarpon bite here but unfortunately it threw the hook and bait very quickly.  After that we got a few more sharks, and then tried some muds on the way home for more trout and such, got a couple more ladyfish and a few catfish.  So overall  a decent day with good action, would’ve been great if we could’ve landed a tarpon or two but that’s why they call it fishing not catching.  Back at it tomorrow going to try and leave at 6 AM so we can get an hour of local fishing in and hopefully knock tarpon off the list right off the bat.  0 for 2

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