Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with Emory today for a half day tarpon fishing charter.  Normally I don’t do many half day trips this time of year since the bait is much easier to catch in the backcountry, and the fishing is usually better too.  But we had a slow day back there yesterday and I was able to save some bait, so figured wed just try to hit some local spots early and hope it’d be better for us.  The early bite was good though it was all over by 7:00. We caught a nice fish of about 75 lbs, and then had another one on that we pulled the hook on.  After that things slowed down.  We ran down to the bigger bridges, didn’t see a whole lot of anything, no more bites in a few spots down there.  Tried out on the oceanside and did find a handful of fish out there, but the tide was dying and they were not responding.  We tried back near home for the last 30 minutes and had the incoming tide, but didn’t see much.  Anyways glad we went early and got our fish.  Tomorrow I’ve got a full day, may try locally first thing and then shoot back into the backcountry.  I heard today it was much better where I was fishing yesterday… as I’ve been saying it’s really day to day, one day they are pulling you out of the boat, the next day you don’t even get a sniff!  1 for 2

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got out with Joe and Cara down from Ohio today.  Tarpon was on their list and they wanted to pull on ‘big stuff.’  We focused on that and did a 3/4 day.  I caught some mullet on the way out, we found some big massive schools where it was fairly easy to load up.  We hit the channels where I’d been having some luck, though today luck wasn’t on our side.  We had a variety of sharks in the first stop, moved around a little, but no tarpon love.  We tried out at the channel ends where I had found a good pack yesterday and had caught several, but today again no love though we did get a big sawfish.  A boat next to us on the other side of the channel did get in front of a couple fish and had a couple bites, landing one.  Next stop we finally actually saw a fish roll, and we moved to get in front of it.  Though again no bites, just a bunch of bonnethead sharks.  We hit one more channel and again made a couple moves, but didn’t see much.  Got a big blacktip shark and then a nurse shark, and that was all she wrote.  Joe and Cara had a good time though and did get to catch some big stuff, and the sawfish was really cool something they’d never seen in Ohio!  Tough day just not many tarpon out back right now, and I heard the local ‘around town’ bite was slow as well, though there were some fish around locally.  Not sure what I’m going to do tomorrow, may try some local spots early and hope we can get one while it’s still dark.  Really hope some new fish show up and fast!  0 for 0

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got out with Scott, Charlie, and Roger over from Texas today for some islamorada tarpon fishing in the everglades national park.  We headed out early and stopped to  catch bait on the way.  With the winds back in the eastern quadrant and not blowing insanely, conditions have vastly improved from last week.  Bait was plentiful and easy to catch, we even saw some large balls of bait in several areas which is great to see… summer time bait is showing up!  We headed straight to where we found tarpon yesterday morning.  Marked a few on the bottom but not rollers.  We couldn’t get a bite though, watched another boat come in about 20 minutes after us, and get two bites back to back and land 1 fish.  Frustrating when that happens!  I moved 3 times trying to get in front of some hungry fish, but just wasn’t happening for us so I bailed out.  Was headed back to the mainland to try, though saw another boat coming back from that way who had part of the same party as me.  He said there wasn’t much out there, so we just turned around and fished out towards the end of the channels we were just in.  We got lucky and a few fish floated by us and soon we hooked one!  After that we proceeded to catch two more, and saw a few rolling around too as storms came in.  We got soaked, but it was well worth it.  We left the fish for the other boat that was with us so they could try to catch some, and finished the day with some large lemon shark, a cobia, and some other sharks.  Some days you just have to keep grinding on the tarpon to make it happen.  It’s tempting after 3, 4, 5 moves to just give up and try for easier fish, but persistence sometimes pays off in a big way.  That’s tarpon fishing.  3 for 3

Capt. Rick Stanczyk