Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Back to the grind after a nice 4th of july weekend getaway.  Got out with Tapani Hennrikson over from Finland today for some tarpon fishing.  We caught some bait early and I had a little bit of a stash from before I left that stayed in fairly good shape since somebody helped me keep them tendered.  We checked a couple spots where the tarpon were before I left and didn’t see much, caught a nice lemon shark.  We moved out to check one last area and found the mother load.  Fish were busting and splashing, and I marked several on the bottom machine.  We had about an hour of tide and we went to work.  Tapani hooked the first couple and landed them.  We then caught a couple more on the dead stick on the rod holder, even got the last bite on the slack tide.  All in all we landed four out of four bites, and then we finished the day trying to get a ‘mud marlin’ for Tapani.  We caught several big sharks and finally got the mud marlin at the end of the day, only saw his tail before he cut us off.  Hopefully the fish will stay put, I got cancelled tomorrow so I am available if anyone wants to go last minute!  4 for 4

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
@richardstanczyk

Got out with Alan and Angela over from Scotland today for a full day tarpon fishing charter in Islamorada.  We headed back into the everglades around the flamingo area to hunt for some tarpon.  They’ve been in some of the channels the last few days.  Caught some bait on the way and then hit the tarpon grounds.  The fish were there, not quite as many as yesterday, but good to see ’em first thing.  We had to move around a little bit, but after an hour or so Angela hooked a nice size 80 lb tarpon.   Didn’t think it was one at first, it was a very slow and methodical fight, but eventually he surfaced and then jumped and we knew it was him!  Alan took over after a while so it was a team effort but after 30 minutes we landed a nice fish.  We caught a few sharks after that and jack crevelles… nice big lemon shark and then a sting ray.  We then moved out a little ways to another area and saw a handful of tarpon still rolling.  Again after a few moves we hooked another nice fish not quite as big but probably a 50 lber.  Alan caught this one all on his own.  The tide slowed down after that and the fish seemed to as well.  We went to a different area entirely and found a handful of tarpon rolling but not a lot.  We moved several times trying to entice them, but only had some shark bites.  Landed several black tips, then we got a nice goliath grouper, and that was the end of our day.  Anyways glad to get a couple.  I’m out of town through the weekend then back at it on July 5.  Hopefully the fish stick around and stay happy!  I have a few days left open in July, it is still a GREAT time to fish for tarpon especially back in the everglades like I do… if you are looking to go this summer drop me a line.  August can still also be very good and that is wide open as of now.  2 for 2

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
@richardstanczyk

Got out for a full day today with Jeff and his son, tarpon were on the target list as well as snook.  We focused on tarpon early I had some leftover bait from a couple days ago but caught a bit of fresh on the way too.  It was a nice flat calm summer day and we found a horde of tarpon in the channels.  Hadn’t fished there much yet this year but had a report that they had shown up in this area, they were right!  We didn’t have much action early though I moved 3 times and we had fish rolling all around us, finally after I was almost ready to call it we got a bite we missed, then hooked one that we got to the boat but didn’t get pictures of because the hook pulled while we had him on the leader.  We moved again one more time and had the last trickle of incoming tide.  We caught one that we got to the boat again but as I grabbed the leader he made a move under the boat and popped off on the motor, but we did get a few good jump shots with him at least.  Finally Jeff got one that we got to the boat properly and actually cooperated for some boatside pictures!  Anyways glad we waited ’em out.  There looked to be more tarpon when I left a little ways outside the channel, I’m sure i’ll check that out tomorrow.  We finished the day catching some trout and then caught a nice half dozen snook.  Back at it tomorrow then out of town until the 4th!  3 for 4

Capt. Rick Stanczyk