Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

We cut to a half day today again and got out after some tarpon.  Winds were howling 25 out of the southwest.  Not pretty conditions but fishable anyways.  We tried the area we caught them good at yesterday, fished for a good while waiting on the tide to start coming in.  It finally started to move but we never had a bite, though we saw a few fish rolling and busting so they were there.  Just not real happy!  Anyways we tried out on one of the ocean side channels where another guide had reported good fishing the previous day.  We set up and put our gear out, I saw a couple fish roll on the edge – a good sign!  Anyways another boat eventually hooked a fish and while they were fighting it, one of our rods finally went off!  A big old tarpon came leaping out of the air!  We chased him around and landed him, a nice 130 lb fish!  After that we got chased in by weather and the wind started cranking 30+ mph so we called it a morning.  Glad to have gotten one!  1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got out for a half day today the winds were howling 25 mph out of the south with the front that is nearby.  I had Jim out with his family from Texas.  Luckily no rain.  I suggested cutting the day a little short with the conditions and it proved to be a good choice.  We found quite a few tarpon early on but not much action the first hour, but we knew they were there.  Once the tide started coming in we re-positioned and soon hooked a big old tarpon.  We landed him, got him on the leader several times, after a long battle though he broke us off in the bridge.  Later we hooked another tarpon and we got this one to the boat after a much shorter 10 minute fight, though the fish did almost spool us it was very close!  A 120 lb fish, nice one!  After that we jumped off another tarpon and caught a nice 100 lb sawfish, plus a big barracuda and a big jack were had in between.  All in all good fishing lots of action and a happy half day!  2 for 3

Got out with Don and Brandon today who have fished with me the last couple years.  We went into the backcountry tarpon fishing.  Was a little worried about the weather as we have a tropical system in the gulf that is suppose to be impacting us over the next few days, but today we got lucky no rain just a bit of wind.  Anyways we found a few tarpon in the first channel we fished but no bites we caught a few sharks.  Next stop there were some tarpon where we had found them yesterday, we jumped one but after that they seemed to have disappeared.  Frustrating!  Anyways we went to another channel and didn’t see much activity but soon after Brandon hooked and landed a nice 60 lb tarpon.  We tried a couple other spots after that bouncing around but not much else happening.  We went and caught a little bait after that and then tried some other channels when the tide had switched and started coming in.  Saw a few tarpon roll though we didn’t get a bite right away, we caught a few more sharks.  Then we had a chunk of ladyfish in the cooler I decided to put out and try, and low and behold we hooked a nice 90 lb tarpon a few minutes after that!  Don got to land him and then that was the end of the day, was glad to have gotten a couple!  Looks like weather may be an issue the next day or two, but will see what it looks like in the AM.  Hopefully if anything we can maybe get out for a half day fishing the local channels close by.  2 for 3

Capt. Rick Stanczyk