Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with return customer Jeff Godlewski today.  The winds laid off but still a slight breeze out of the south which I never really like.  We had some tarpon action early on with a couple bites on our live baits.  Jeff got tight with one though it was a long distance release as he came unbuttoned after a couple minutes.  Oh well.  We went and caught some fresh bait after that and took a look in some of the deeper everglades areas.  Not much for signs of life back there, we caught a few sharks in one spot.  Saw one tarpon and thought we might get some action but no love.  Really dirty water hopefully it will clean up soon.  We did some light tackle fishing mid day and that was OK, and then tried again around town in the afternoon for the last part of the day.  Saw a few tarpon in the local channels but again no reaction but we did catch a big barracuda and had a few larger shark bites.  Taking a day off tomorrow and then back at it wednesday.  The next 3 days look to be very calm and light easterly winds, so should be good for our fishing.  Look like a cold front incoming on Saturday.  Normally I don’t like those but I think we actually need it as it’s been so warm for February.  Probably won’t do the tarpon fishing any favors but hopefully it will help reset things a little with some of the dirty water etc…  0 for 2

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

Got out with Bill and Alicia today, return customers of mine down from Pennsylvania who also have a place here.  Bill wanted a tarpon and Alicia wanted to catch some fish to eat.  I told them the fishing had been a little tough overall lately but we could give both a shot hopefully.  We left a little early and fished some local spots as I had a tough day yesterday in the backcountry finding any numbers of tarpon and I knew a few were caught around town yesterday.  We found a few early on in the first stop and had a couple blow ups on our live baits!  No bites there but we did finally hook a fish on another rod that Bill got to catch!   A nice 90 lb tarpon, his first and he was thrilled!  We got him on the leader several times and some good video of him but unfortunately he broke off making a big run off the leader.  After that we tried to hunt around and find some eating fish for Alicia but it was a little difficult.  Couldn’t find any snappers but we did catch some mackerels and a few other species.  We tried for tarpon again later in the day I checked a few of the bridges but did not see much in the way of signs of tarpon life.  We found a few more in the area we fished in the morning, but did not get another bite though we caught a big jack crevelle.  Anyways glad we got Bill his tarpon.  Looks like the winds will subside even more tomorrow and we should have a very nice weak.  Hopefully with the calming of the weather some fish will show back up in the backcountry!  1 for 1

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

Got out with Gareth and Claudia visiting from over in South Africa.  Gareth really wanted to try and catch a tarpon.  We dedicated the day to it.  It was a little nasty out, scattered showers in the AM and a hard 20 knot southeast wind.  Bait was easy we loaded the well with fresh bait and headed out into the backcountry.  We found a few tarpon in the first channel we fished, somewhere I hadn’t fished for tarpon yet this year.  No bites out of them but a few sharks and a couple big sting rays.  Not a ton of tarpon but we definitely had a couple roll around us and saw a few more on the sonar.  After the incoming tide quit we moved out to the channel where we had caught one yesterday to catch the start of the falling tide.  Nothing going on here though we never saw a fish and didn’t have any bites.  I then took a gamble and hit some of the open water areas I like to fish as there had been tarpon out there a few times.  It was pretty rough we didn’t see any tarpon showing, but we did have good shark activity out here too with some big blacktips, bull sharks, and toothy grey sharks.  Tough day for the tarpon but looks like the winds will start to subside tomorrow and we may have a very nice week coming up.  Calm and warm should mean a lot more tarpon should show up.  0 for 0

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