Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Fished way out back again today since my crew wanted a little variety of ‘big stuff.’  We caught plenty of sharks including blacktips, sharpnoses, lemon, and even a big ‘sawfish’ which was cool!  We ended up only having one tarpon bite though we caught it thankfully.  It was windy and out of the south not the nicest conditions back there but not too bad for my big old boat.  Just got booked for a half day tomorrow, was gonna take the day off but figured i’d just fish the morning.  Supposedly there has been a good bite closer down to marathon around some of the bigger bridges, but dont think we’ll have the right tidal window for that with our time frame.  Also there’s been about 50 boats down there and I imagine on the weekend it’ll be even more…  So likely will fish locally hopefully there will be a few hungry ones!  1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got out with Rob and his buddy Roger for a days fishing.  We ventured out into the backcountry to get away from the crowds since the winds weren’t too bad, 10-15 out of the south east and it got nicer as the day went on.  We had good action with sharks and after a couple moves got on to a little tarpon bite.  We ended up not having good luck keeping them on the hook, we jumped 3 of them off!  The tide started to die around 10:15 and I was thinking hope might be lost but we stuck it out a little longer and roger hooked one, not huge but a nice 35 lber, that we landed.  Good way to finish!  After that we took some crocodile and bird photos, and tried a couple other stops back there and locally for tarpon but not much else going on in the afternoon.  Glad to have gotten another tarpon!  Tomorrow I’ll be venturing out back again I think, being the weekend the bridges are just too crowded!  1 for 4

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got out with the crew from RI again today.  We did a 3/4 day and ran back into the everglades.  Had good falling tide until a little after 10:00 or so, gave us a good 3 hour window of fishing.  We saw quite a few busting and jumping tarpon in the area.  Our sister boat got on a couple early, we only had shark bites sitting about 30 yards away.  We moved around but still no luck.  We then moved a bit further out where we had seen fish busting, and ended up catching a couple smaller tarpon out there in the 25-40 lb range.  Was glad to get ’em!  Our sister boat caught one out there as well.  After the tide quit it slowed down and we made our way back home.  Full day tomorrow, not sure if I’ll head back there again it is nice to get away from the crowd of 20 boats around the bridges!  2 for 2

Capt. Rick Stanczyk