Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with JR and Butch today we were scheduled all day but the 25 mph winds and such didn’t make it seem worth staying the whole time.  I was also somewhat limited on bait, I’d rather fish hard for 4 hours then try and have to drag it out with the same amount of bait for 8 hours in this situation.  We found a bunch of tarpon where we had caught one yesterday but they didn’t respond for us.  We caught a few random bottom oddities including jacks, mutton snapper, and bonnethead sharks.  After a couple hours we saw a couple other boats in the area catch a fish, but most did not and there were another 3 or 4 boats.  Anyways after a while I couldn’t take it much longer and had quit seeing fish rolling or marking on the bottom, so we went into the backside channels.  I had marked fish in their yesterday though they didn’t bite, but today we fooled one!  Butch hooked a monster fish over 100 lbs, he almost spooled us but we kept up with him.  We got him on the leader several times, but unfortunately I could tell it was one of those fish that wasn’t going to roll over easily.  We tightened up and started putting a lot of pressure on him, but he went under the boat and in the wind and swells it was too much to get out and around the boat quickly.  So anyways a technical catch with the fish on the leader but no boatside pictures.  Was happy to get one!  Now I’m out of town for a few days, looks to be nice weather over the memorial day weekend.  If you can get away from the crazy’s you might have good fishing!  I’ll be back at it tuesday.  1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got out with Frank and his son Colby today for Colbys graduation present tarpon trip!  Conditions didn’t look great but not terrible, breezy out of the southwest not a wind direction I like.  The sargasm weed was pretty bad so made fishing live baits tough.  We caught some bait early and set out around 6:30.  Not much action the first few stops aside from a few bonnet heads.  I did mark several fish on our 3rd stop, and we gave it a good hour or so there.  I was surprise we didn’t get a bite because the fish were definitely hanging out in the area.  After that we checked some oceanside areas and got lucky and found some hungry ones.  We set up and within 15 minutes we had a nice 65 lb fish on for Colby!  It gave us some great jumps, and we got him on the leader but unfortunately he popped off before we could get him up for boatside pictures, but a landed fish none the less.  After that it was time to head on home.  Glad to have gotten one!  Tomorrow looks like it’ll be fairly nasty with high winds and lots of rain possible… not sure if we will make it out but will see what it looks like in the AM.  I’m out of town until next week after that, get back to the grind on Tuesday, hopefully the conditions stay nice as it’s suppose to be a very nice weekend after tomorrow!  1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got out with the same crew as yesterday the New England boys.  We caught some pilchards in the backcountry as we were planning on doing a little snook fishing but tarpon was on the agenda too.  It was rough and nasty where we had found fish off the mainland yesterday… south wind kicked up good 15 mph, which is about one of my least favorite winds in the backcountry.  Anyways it was mudded out and didn’t see any fish, so we bailed and went snook fishing.  Snooking was decent, not a lot of fish but we caught some very nice size ones I think 7 in total.  After that we decided to try tarpon for the last couple hours of the day.  The channels looked good and were a little protected with green water (not too muddy).  It looked like it’d be fishy and we did catch a tarpon there yesterday, but today it seemed dead.  We moved a couple times, and fished very hard, but only had a couple shark bites and that was it.  Sounded like a tough day for a lot of guys as the wind mixed things up, just when it seemed like it was going to get nice and calm.  Looks like it’ll blow the next couple days and of course get nice the day I go out of town!  Oh well hopefully it’ll be nice when I get back.  0 for 0