Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out into the backcountry today the winds were howling 20 out of the east.  We made it into the backcountry and fished the channels with the start of the incoming tide.  I only had a handful of baits so we had to make ’em count.  We caught plenty of sharks including blacktips and a nice hammerhead.  Then right when we were about through we hooked and landed a nice 50 lb tarpon for John.  He did well listening to my instructions and hooked the fish perfectly with the circle hook!  After that we did some light rod stuff and tried again for tarpon/shark for the last bit of the day, though not much else happened there.  Glad to have gotten another one this tough year.  1 for 1

Tonight I took Blake and his buddies that were suppose to fish with me the following day.  They had called me this evening and I decided I’d offer to take them late at night to catch the falling tide and then could take the next day off.  We opted for that and it was a good move.  There were tons of fish munching on all kinds of baits out in the local channels.  We got bit every drift for two hours but only caught 1 fish there missing the other bites but it was good activity and fun.  We went into another channel and didn’t hear near as much but we ended up landing two more tarpon so all three of the guys caught one.  Fun night and nice to have slept in and have the day off today.  Thursday I’m scheduled off too but may end up fishing it now we will see.  3 for 7.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

This morning we fished a half day for tarpon locally around islamorada.  Managed to get one early on a live mullet saw quite a few more fish than we did yesterday which was good to see.  Though after we caught ours the tide changed and didn’t see the fish rolling around anymore.  We tried another bridge and saw some fish but no response, then tried the channels near home and also saw fish but again no respone.  Did get a nice mutton snapper for dinner off the bottom rod.  Glad to have gotten one tarpon.  1 for 1

I fished this evening and slow fishing again we didn’t have a bite all night.  Saw a few fish in the local channels we tried early but didn’t get them to do much.  We tried around the bridges and didn’t see a whole lot.  Then tried the same channel again near sunset, saw a couple boats catch one fish, though myself and the other guy out there didn’t get a bite.  Anyways would of stayed a little later but the crew had to be in for dinner.  Full day tomorrow going into the backcountry I think.  0 for 0

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

This morning we fished a half day for tarpon locally.  We had the tide change early and fished around the bridges.  We did find a few fish rolling and set up on them.  We had a few cheap shots fairly quickly and did have a tarpon grab and scale the mullet but didn’t really eat it, a weak bite.  After the tide started falling we didn’t see much but saw some fish laying on the bottom.  I readjusted the boat and we got in front of them and hooked a nice mutton snapper on the bottom that a big cuda ate.  We got the cuda up to the boat and then a tarpon ate our surface bait and we cut him off quick to chase the tarpon.  Landed a nice 40 lb tarpon!  After that things slowed down we ran back near home and tried one of the local channels.  We soon had a tarpon up again after the live bait and hooked and caught him another fish of 40 lbs or so.  Fun morning glad to have gotten a couple as it’s been very tough lately not many fish around we need another push.  2 for 3

This evening I was trying to get Dean from Australia a tarpon.  We left out a little before 4 and checked some local areas not seeing much.  I ran back down to the bridge where we found them this morning.  Didn’t see much but we fished under the bridge with the last couple hours of incoming tide.  Saw a few fish roll and we had very nervous baits but never any busts or bites.  Did have a couple cudas eat us though.  Anyways we moved back into the bay and saw more fish rolling and busting here and there.  Never got a bite out of them though.  Only saw a couple fish hooked by 7:30 so it was very slow.  Then saw another 3 or so fish get hooked by 8:00 and thought it was going to start getting good, but that was about all that I saw out of the 30+ boats down there.  Anyway I put in the extra effort and we fished another channel near home staying late and finally had one crush a crab but we didn’t hook him unfortunately.  Anyways tough night but we gave it 110%.  0 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk