Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with Buck and Carl today and we had some nasty conditions.  It was blowing 20-25 out of the north with a cold front that hit last night, and it’s suppose to get even colder tonight down into the 50s!  Awful late in the year for that but oh well.  Anyways we knew fishing would be tough but we gave it a good go.  Our first bait in the water at the bridge Carl hooked a nice 65 lb tarpon!  It was a mission getting the boat spun around into the wind and towards the bridge, while the tarpon was going crazy and the line was rubbing against the bridge pilings!  We got through and after the tarpon and then had to go around and cut off a couple of peoples lines that were fishing from the bridge because they didn’t get their lines out of the way so that was interesting.  Anyways we landed the fish and the boys were thrilled!  After that things slowed down we tried a couple other spots, and then decided to do some rod bending.  The mangrove snapper bite was pretty good we caught some nice size ones around the islands.  In the afternoon we tried tarpon again with the falling tide the conditions got much nicer as the tide and wind were together.  We didn’t see much for tarpon at either bridge so we ran towards home to try a channel there.  We caught a bonnethead shark, a big jack crevelle, and then finally a nice 35 lb tarpon for Buck!  A great way to end the day it was nice to catch a couple on a tough day.  2 for 2

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got out with Aaron and his dad again today.  Tarpon were still on the list and we ended up dedicating the day to that.  With the way the fishing has been sometimes that’s what you must do.  We tried early with the same routine as yesterday, today however the fish just didn’t want to bite… We had them rolling and busting around us but never had a sniff.  After a little over an hour we gave up and got some live mullet from the local bait guys.  We ran down to the bridges to give it a whirl.  We found a few fish in the back channel of one of the bridges, and had a cheap shot soon after getting the baits out.  Never had a solid bite though and then the tide quit there.  We looked around and fished a couple more areas waiting for the tide to start but didn’t see much.  Finally the tide got falling and we ended up finding some fish nearer to the bridge.  We set up and after a little time started to have some action on our live baits.  We had several more cheap shots and finally started getting some solid bites!  Unfortunately the tarpon were tough to keep on the hook, we missed quite a few.  The baits we had were size large so that didn’t make things any easier… Finally after we had just about given up hope and decided to stick with it, we hooked one and got him to stay on.  Keith landed a nice fish of about 80 lbs and was thrilled!  I think we must’ve had 8 or so solid bites and maybe 10 other cheap shots, when you get that much action you hope to at least get one to the boat which we did so we were happy.  After that we tried some an area close to the marina again for the last hour or so but didn’t have any luck, just caught a nurse shark.  Anyways it was nice to get to see such good tarpon action on our live baits, would of been nice to have caught a few more but that’s why they call it fishing.  As long as we are getting bites I’m happy and it’s always nice to catch one, make you appreciate them that much more when it’s tough!  1 for 8

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got out with Aaron down from DC today with his dad who flew over from the west coast.  Tarpon were on the agenda but they also wanted some dinner and little variety as well.  We tried for tarpon in the morning, got out a little early at 6 to catch the last of the tide locally.  It proved to be a good bet we had two tarpon bites but unfortunately they didn’t stay on the hook for us.  We ran into the backcountry after that and didn’t do much with tarpon back there, saw a couple rollers.  The sharks were not even biting really, we caught a lemon shark in the second spot and a sting ray in the first, but no other blacktips or anything.  After that we switched gears and caught plenty of trout and ladyfish, though none big enough for dinner.  So for the last hour we caught some mangrove snappers, and did get some nice size ones about 8 or so enough for a couple good dinners for the boys.  Tomorrow we’re out again and I think we’ll focus more on tarpon throughout the day.  If it’s still windy will likely stick it out around town as that’s been a bit better than in the backcountry for tarpon with the hard south winds.  Looks like this weekend we are getting slammed with a late cold front, might slow things down for a few days.  0 for 2

Capt. Rick Stanczyk