Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Had Darrel Brock out the last two days and have him again tomorrow morning.  Yesterday we fished all day around town locally and it was tough.  Saw a handful of fish caught but we never had a sniff unfortunately.  I tried in the morning and we moved several times, watching fish roll all around us but couldn’t get them to respond.  Late morning I went and stocked up on some more bait and we tried a few more areas.  No luck however we caught a few little sharks and that was about it.  So today I took him super early we fished 2 AM to 8 AM.  I normally don’t do the middle of the night thing but have had to resort to it a few times this season since the fishing has been so unpredictable during the day.  Luckily we left when we did we had good fishing until about 4 AM, having 5 bites and landing 2 fish.  After that the wind swung from south to west/northwest.  The fish just didn’t like it I moved a half dozen times and tried multiple different drifts, baits, etc…  We saw fish rolling around us in almost every area and just not very happy.  I spoke to another captain who fished that night and he said the same thing they had a few bites early on and then nothing.  Anyways glad we left when we did I always try my best to put my customers on fish.  I’m fishing an evening trip tonight will have a report for that probably tomorrow, and again tomorrow morning with Darrel we will be fishing from 5 to 9 AM.  I am open sunday night for a trip and tuesday evening as well.  Tides look favorable going into sunset the next several nights so may be a good time to go.  If you are looking to go drop me a line if I can’t take you I can recommend someone for sure!  0 for 0 and 2 for 5

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Tarpon fished again today with Nick, Craig, and Steven.  They fished me a couple days ago and we had landed a couple tarpon.  Nick still needed to land one.  Unfortunately it didn’t happen for us today.  I caught us some fresh lively bait first thing this morning.  Fishing was very slow I never saw anyone catch or even hook a fish all morning.  We tried several of the bridges, with boats around most of them.  Saw plenty of fish at the last two stops, though they were just non-responsive.  We ended up fishing up around town locally the last couple hours.  Saw a few fish in a channel and set up and we did finally get a bite, though he didn’t stay on for us we jumped him off.  Anyways tough fishing the water is still cold 75 degrees or so.  The el nino late winter is really killing us this spring with the day time tarpon bite, the fishing is just very slow.  Sometimes you get lucky and get in the right spot at the right time and may get a bite or two, but all the usual tricks that get them to respond are just not effective.  Anyways a day off tomorrow for some service work and then I have the same client for 3 days over the weekend.  Gonna try and talk him into going late at night as my schedule permits me to do it and I have him multiple days so I can adjust accordingly.  I don’t like fishing in the dark, but with the way it’s been I am going to do what I have to do.  We did have good luck the last several nights I fished last week!  0 for 1

Well more wind and chilliness today we had a stiff northeast breeze blowing 25 mph today.  Fishing was tough we got rained on trying to catch bait I ended up buying some from the bait boys.  We saw quite a few fish early in the channel where we found them yesterday, though no bites today.  We saw some fish around the bridges, and a handful were caught, though only about 5 boats out of 15 or so had any bites.  We moved to another bridge and had a few cheap shots.  Fish coming up and busting or flashing the bait, but not committing to eating it!  We had one fish scale a bait though I wouldn’t even consider it a bite.  Very frustrating I had very nice customers and would of loved to get them a fish.  Anyways tough day worked very hard and moved around a lot trying to find some hungry fish, but they wouldn’t respond to us.  First day in a while I haven’t even had a bite, but it happens!  0 for 0

Fished this evening with return customer Frank and his family.  I was a little worried after the slow fishing today but things were a little more active.  It started off slow but as the tide turned and it got a little closer to sunset things turned on around 6:00.  We had several cheap shots and jumped off a fish on the bottom rod.  Caught a big nurse shark.  Then finally got a tarpon to eat a live bait and Frank caught a nice 50 lb tarpon.  Very happy to get a fish tonight I didn’t see anyone else get a bite and only hear of one other boat that caught one.  1 for 2

Capt. Rick Stanczyk