Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

3/19/16 – Today winds kicked up substantially out of the southwest, not a great condition for our tarpon fishery.  We ran out into the backcountry where the tarpon had been swarming the last few days, and saw a few around when we got there.  We jumped one fish on the last of the falling tide and that was about it for tarpon action for the day for us.  We switched channels when the tide turned, though their were already a couple boats there before us.  It was frustrating because we did see one boat catch several tarpon, though if you weren’t sitting on that exact spot you weren’t getting a bite.  We made a few moves and caught several sharks, then ended up doing some rod bending with ladyfish and a few trout.  Unfortunately the channels out there and bay turned into a complete mudhole making for tough fishing.  0 for 1

3/20/16 – Today tarpon was the main target we caught some bait early and made our way into the backcountry to try the channels back there again.  Winds were still howling out of the southwest with the cold front coming in later this evening.  We ran to where we saw some fish caught the previous day, however no such luck today.  We caught several sharks, and when the tide quit the mullet swarmed in the channels.  We took a little time to stock up on fresh bait then we tried some different channels.  Nothing but sharks though we got a little variety with a couple big nurses among the other blacktips, we did see some tarpon roll in one area and got on top of them and gave it a good 45 minutes, but no response unfortunately.  We ended up running back around town to try live baiting the local channels.  We didn’t see any tarpon there either, but we did catch a big jack crevelle, and some various sharks too.  0 for 0

Looks like tonight and tomorrow will be dropping into the 60s, and even high 50s monday night.  It will likely be too cold to mess with tarpon fishing so I will likely be recommending my anglers to fish for other things.  But time will tell hopefully by next weekend things will get somewhat back to normal, I’m ready for some consistent nice weather and steady tarpon action!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Back on the tarpon today it was a gorgeous day with winds light out of the southeast.  By the time we got into the backcountry it slicked out and was flat calm.  Thankfully it was nice and overcast.  We fished where we found the tarpon yesterday and they were still there.  We watched several roll around the entire time.  First bait out we hooked a fish within 5 minutes and we got him to the leader but he came off before we got any real good pictures.  After that we caught a few sharks and after about an hour we hooked another tarpon.  Same size fish they were both around 50 lbs and we got some good shots of this one and released him unharmed.  After that things slowed down and we caught a couple more sharks including a 100 lb bull shark which was cool.  Then around 10:30 we hooked a big 120 lb fish and we fought him for a good half hour.  He put on quite a show and didn’t want to quit but we got him leadered and got some good boatside shots and released him as well.  They weren’t pulling you out of the boat like you’d expect them to with the conditions we had, but catching 3 tarpon in a day is plenty fine with me!  After that we went triple tail fishing and caught a few for dinner, including a 13 lber which was a beast!  Honestly I was more excited about him than the tarpon we don’t see many over 10 lbs this days so it was a treat.  Luckily the sharks weren’t too bad while tarpon fishing nor was the ‘red grass’ that often makes fishing very difficult in this area this time of year.  Tomorrow I’ll likely be doing some tarpon fishing and then sunday the front is coming in.  They are calling for some rain and sunday night it’s gonna drop down into the low 60s, so may not be doing any tarpon fishing for a few days after that – we will see what happens!  3 for 3

Today I got back out tarpon fishing after just doing a half day yesterday of ‘rod bending’.  I headed out into the backcountry as a buddy of mine said a lot of fish finally started showing up in the channels and other usual haunts the previous day.  The fish way in the back off the beaches hadn’t been feeding too consistently so I was happy to hear there were some big schools of fish in new areas.  Anyways we got there early around 8 AM and had a nice incoming tide.  The sharks were around and we caught several of them and started seeing some tarpon rolling.  They weren’t super happy though finally after an hour or so we hooked and caught a nice 50 lb fish.  After that we proceeded to catch several more sharks and a few other odds and ends, and finally after about another 45 minutes when we were getting ready to pack it in, we hooked a large 110 lb tarpon!  He put on quite a show and we got several nice jumps out of him, and he dragged us for almost a mile.  After that we called it quits and finished the day catching a handful of trout and snappers.  Fun day!  I’ll be at it again tomorrow on a group trip and tarpon is the request, hopefully they will still be there!  It sounds like Sunday we are getting a cold front and it will be in the low 60s for a couple nights.  That will likely shut the tarpon down for a few days though it looks to be warming up right quick after that.  Just when things were starting to get good…  2 for 2

Capt. Rick Stanczyk