Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

3/14/16 – Today we fished all day for tarpon.  I had caught some bait the previous afternoon in the muds on the way home which were fairly productive I put away but 40 baits.  We tried locally in the channels nearby where I had seen lots of fish the morning before.  Today though I didn’t see much we gave it a good 30-40 minutes.  I ran into the backcountry and we tried some channels back there with no luck, and eventually made our way back off the mainland beaches.  There were tons of tarpon back here, free jumping and busting all over as far as you could see.  They were not eating however we fished for 2 hours pretty hard and moved several times.  New arrivals that just aren’t wanting to feed.  Eventually we left and tried another channel on the way home and we jumped one tarpon after about 5 minutes.  We then made our way back towards Islamorada and caught a dozen mullet on the way and tried the live baits in the local channels.  No luck however for us.  We did catch a variety of sharks throughout the day that kept us semi busy however.  0 for 1

3/15/16 – Today we had tarpon on our minds again.  I brought some shrimp for a backup plan as my anglers wanted a little bit of dinner too.  We left early at 6:30 and ran right back towards the mainland beaches to try and get on those fish early.  We got there a little after daybreak and it was the same scene – tarpon jumping and splashing everywhere you looked.  Same deal though they just would not bite, we caught a few sharks and after the tide quit after a couple hours, we went and caught some tripletail.  This was fairly good we got a couple for dinner and released several more.  We then made our way back towards Islamorada to try the local channels again, however no luck there with tarpon we caught a few more sharks and that was it.  0 for 0

It’s been tough fishing for tarpon this is the latest start to the season I’ve seen since 2010 when we had that extreme cold winter.  Though hopefully all these fish we’ve been seeing will move into the channels and throughout the bays and settle in.  Once that happens it should get more consistent and they should start feeding more.  Until then all you can do is try!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Today I fished a half day in the morning for tarpon.  I had some leftover bait from the last few days thankfully.  We tried the local channels and had the last couple hours of falling tide.  First spot we didn’t see much but we did catch a sting ray.  So I went on the other side near the ocean, and we started seeing tarpon rolling everywhere.  I adjusted the boat and got where I wanted to be and we put our gear out.  It took a little bit of enticing but after 30 minutes or so we finally had a hard zip on one bait.  I’m sure it was a tarpon as right afterwards we checked the bait, put it back out, and then hooked one about 10 seconds later.  A nice fish he put on a good show for us and we landed about a 75 lber.  After that the tide quit and the fish quit showing, we gave it a little while longer but no dice.  I did see a ball of mullet go by though they were gone quickly and it was overcast and muddy water so I couldn’t find them, but that would of been a nice score of bait!  We ran back into the bayside and fished another channel and I saw some tarpon rolling in there which was great.  We didn’t get any more bites though we did hook a large sawfish at the end of the trip which pulled us around for 10 minutes, though we broke him off he was too big to land on our tackle.  Anyways glad to have landed one  it looks like the weather will be fairly nice for a while so it should be ‘tarpon time!’  1 for 2

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

3/8/16 I had Gary and Ron some regular customers the last few years.  We started the morning in the gulf doing the mackerels and that was pretty good.  A lot of action with some jacks and other things mixed in.  Again very rough and had to use the trolling motor to hold me in place as I couldn’t anchor in the deep heavy grass out there without dragging.  After a couple hours of that we ran into the backcountry to try sharks/tarpon.  The channel I found fish in yesterday didn’t produce much, we sat for a while and had a couple sharks zip us after 30-40 minutes, but didn’t hook them.  I decided to run out off the mainland and we caught a couple bull sharks and a big lemon there.  We plowed back towards the channels and it was a rough ride.  We tried again in another channel for the last 45 minutes, but no bite of any kind.  Tough fishing but we worked hard and caught some stuff at least.  They are fishing with me again on the 10th hopefully we can find a few tarpon!  0 for 0

3/9/16 Tim and his nephew fished with me today new customers.  They wanted to try and catch tarpon and after yesterday I didn’t think it was worth devoting the day too, plus it was blowing 30 mph again.  Bait was very tough I didn’t catch any extra yesterday, and this morning we only caught 8 that I had to split with my bait partner.  So we had about 9 baits total.  Anyways we caught the mackerels good with a few bluefish mixed in and then ran back towards Islamorada to try for tarpon for the last couple hours on a shorter 3/4 day.  The first spot we caught a big ray and a jack crevelle though no signs of tarpon.  As the tide quit I decided to run out on the ocean side and give it a try there with the last few baits I had.  A fellow guide had caught a fish out there the day before.  Anyways we set up and put ’em out and soon we hooked a big jack, and right after that a nice 40 lb tarpon!  We landed him and decided to give it a few more minutes since we had time and a couple baits left.  Sure enough we hooked another tarpon a nice 60 lber that put on a good show.  Tim got to jump in the water and get a shot with his fish as we were in a good spot to do that in (we don’t boat tarpon any longer).  The guys got to land their first tarpon and we took the lemons the day gave us and made lemonade!  2 for 2