Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with Glenn and his son Jack today for a full days fishing.  We went after tarpon as that’s been the thing to do as of late.  They had fished last night with someone though fishing was tough locally they only had 1 bite on a crab that they did not catch, so I was hoping we’d be able to put it together today.  Winds were kicking a little out of the southwest – not a direction I particularly like, though it wasn’t howling so that was good.  We caught a little bait on the way out and hit the channels.  Lots of boats out today, people were fishing just about everywhere I went.  We got on a few tarpon early, Glenn jumped one off, and then later on landed a nice 50 lber plus several sharks for them both.  I think we caught the same nurse shark three times!  After that we did some light rod action, trout fishing was very good.  We looked off the mainland for some tarpon with the tide starting to fall, but didn’t see much.  They usually dont like that southwest wind out there as it blows on shore and muds the waters up a bit, the little sharks were there and horrendous though.  We went inside the creeks to try a spot for snook, we didn’t have any live bait but gave the artificials a try.  No luck with the snook and the bugs were kind of bad, but I marked 3 fish go by on the sonar that I thought were tarpon.  We put a big rod out and before we knew it hooked a big 80 lb tarpon!  It was a battle in the small creek and I had to use the trolling motor and the big motor to maneuver around.  We landed the fish and got him on the leader a few times, but we couldn’t get her to roll over.  Unfortunately she got under the boat and around the trolling motor very quickly, and broke off and we broke the rod tip in the process which stunk because they don’t make that particular rod any longer but at least I still have quite a few spares!  Anyways after that we headed back towards flamingo to try another spot for the last part of the day.  We didn’t see any tarpon where i found them yesterday, but we tried a channel close by.  When we pulled in it just looked fishy… nice green, clean water with a good tide and breeze blowing across it.  I saw a fish roll soon after we set up and knew we’d get some shots.  We ended up getting 3 tarpon, and some big lemon sharks and other sharks, it was a great way to finish the last hour of the day!  Glenn and Jack had a day they won’t soon forget.  I’m fishing the next couple days I just booked Monday, and then Tuesday I’m putting on hold to pull my boat to do some work.  Though I’m available from later in the week and have plenty of dates in August.  The tarpon fishing can still be very good this time of year, sometimes better then ‘prime time’ in the spring.  Give me a shout and we can put it together!  5 for 6

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
@richardstanczyk

Got out with Andy Thompson and his boys Conrad and Derek again today.  We focused more on tarpon today for most of the day.  Bait was easy and we got to work soon after.  Had the last bit of incoming tide, fished a channel I hadn’t hit in a while but heard there was some fish there.  We found a good pack of ’em, and managed to catch a couple before the tide quit after an hour or so.  We then ran out towards the mainland to try out there where we had done so good yesterday.  Today we saw a lot of fish rolling straight away, unlike yesterday where they were not showing much.  But it was tough to get to them the sharks were bad, we made several moves and just couldn’t get a bite and after 45 minutes or so the tarpon seemed to quit showing.  We gave up and tried a few other channels, without much success aside from a few more sharks.  We tried one last spot where fishing had been good a few weeks ago.  We saw a fish jump out of the water and then a few roll in that area, and we set up and within 10 minutes hooked another tarpon.  Got some good jumping video and photos and got him to the boat before he took off and jumped off.  But had the leader for a release.  I’m out the next couple days and then next week is slow so far, I’m going to be doing some boat work but will have another skiff to use in the meantime.  August is great for tarpon so hit me up!  3 for 3

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
@richardstanczyk

Got out with Mike, Cary, and Brandon today we had a two boat trip along with Capt. Jeff Beeler aboard Huntinator.  We caught plenty of bait early on and hit the channels where we had found fish yesterday morning.  We didn’t get a bite but Capt. Jeff got his anglers on a nice tarpon there.  After that the tide soon quit.  We decided to take a look out off the mainland areas, fish had been plentiful out there a month ago, though the last week or two it’d been much more hit or miss, but was worth a shot.  We got lucky and they were out there, not showing a whole lot on the surface but I could see them on my electronics.  We jumped one straight away where we had seen one splash.  After that the sharks were not eating us up too bad thankfully, and we had plenty of more tarpon action!  Eventually the sharks got bad and we moved a bit, then eventually moved back where we had been and had more tarpon action!  Capt. Jeff also had some bites and landed one more fish.  We were lucky and made every other bite of ours count and landed five fish.  It was pretty epic fishing.  After a few hours of that, the tide quit and it was getting hot so we wrapped up a little early.  Great fishing hopefully those fish will stay put out there for the next few days.  August again is coming up and that can be a great time for tarpon fishing in the everglades… though full days are usually required and I like to leave early around 6, but let’s go give it a shot!  5 for 6

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
@richardstanczyk