Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with Allen and Stuart today, day two of our group trip with two other boats.  Bait’s been tough but we obtained a little yesterday afternoon.  Winds were kicking hard south with a front approaching this evening.  But the morning wasn’t bad just a bit windy.  One of the boats got in on a hungry pack of fish early and called us down.  We were the odd man out though, we were right in the middle of the two other boats with fish surrounding us.  We couldn’t get a bite though only bonnethead sharks!  The boats on either side of us each caught two.  We moved around a bit and finally when one of the boats hooked their second, they called us over and we just sat on their anchor ball.  We did get hooked up here finally – a big 150 lber!  Good fight and very acrobatic fish!  We got some good pictures boatside and released her unharmed.  We moved back into the area, and both the other boats hooked up again, one ended up catching three and another caught four.  We didn’t have another bite.  We even slid in where the other boats were as they moved to let us in since we were all fishing the same group.  But we had the bad mojo I guess.  Anyways I won’t say it was too bad as we did catch one, and a big one at that.  But just one of those days where we were in the dog house so to say!  Anyways I’m probably jinxing myself especially with the late cold front coming, but it’s been 18 trips in a row with landing at least one tarpon.  So I’ve been consistent if nothing else and I’ll usually always take that.  Back at it tomorrow but we do have lots of rain coming in tonight, but hopefully it’ll dry out by early morning.  1 for 1

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

Got out with Mike and Harry for a full day today.  Bait was tough for us we didn’t catch much in the AM but got a handful, and I had a few leftovers from a few days ago.  We found some small fish first thing in the AM, had a couple bites out of them but they threw the hook straight away!  Also got a big trout, a few sharks, and a bluefish.  After an hour or so the tide quit, we tried to catch a bit more bait.  It was a struggle but we caught another 8 or so which helped.  Next stop it paid off Harry hooked a big 120 lb tarpon we landed on one of them!  We moved around a bit more and then had a few more sharks starting to bite.  Then Mike had a nice 80 lb tarpon grab a bait but he didn’t stay on the hook for us unfortunately.  I was running low on bait again and we looked around one more time but bait just wasn’t very catchable, but one of our sister boats who was also fishing the same party spared us a few extra he had.  We ended up getting a big sawfish on one of those baits which was cool!  We moved one more time where we had seen a tarpon but no more tarpon bites.  Though sharks kept us busy.  Back at it tomorrow with these guys hopefully we can get Mike a tarpon!  1 for 4

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

Got out with Matt, Mike, and Kevin today for a full day charter fishing for tarpon.  We left early and hit the backcountry areas.  Found a decent amount of fish in same area as yesterday.  They didn’t seem super happy though.  We had to put some time in but eventually got one to bite.  A nice 60 lber for Matt!  We landed him and got back to it.  Hooked a big sawfish (i think) that broke us off, and got a nurse shark too.  After that the tide quit.  Things seemed to slow down and we made a move to another channel.  A few more tarpon here.  I was saying how the little sharks weren’t too bad today thankfully, but I spoke to soon as they started to show up!  We caught a few of them and then had another tarpon bite!  We missed this one though, looked like a little guy that just spit the bait straight away.  I talked to a buddy of mine who said he was in a good tarpon bite, we moved over near him as he was leaving soon.  Watched him catch one and he left and gave us some bait.  But it was all over but the shouting just sharks for us there!  Some times you just have to be in the right place at the right time.  We tried to catch a little more bait with limited success, and tried another channel.  We had a few more shark bites and then Kevin got a nice cobia which was a welcome treat.  Finished up after that, tough for the tarpon for us but at least we got 1!  Looks like tomorrow will be a decent day and then Sunday really looks like crap – 70% chance of rain and 25 mph out of the south – ugh!  May be a good one to skip we will see how it looks.  Back at it tomorrow!  1 for 2

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