Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Had a 3/4 day today we were trying to get John his first tarpon.  After yesterday I had high expectations.  We ran into the backcountry and caught a little bit of bait on the way, though I had leftovers from yesterday.  We got out off the beach and had the last of the incoming tide.  Tide ran good for about 45 minutes than slowed down, we caught a few sharks including a hammerhead and some blacktips.  I was hoping we would get a crack at a tarpon early with as many fish as we saw yesterday, and realizing we would have a tide change to sit through likely without much action… but no such luck.  Anyways we moved around a bit, didn’t see a whole lot.  Eventually saw a couple tarpon roll/bust but it was right on the change of the tide and no bites out of them.  We kept moving around and sharks kept us busy, and did not see any other signs of tarpon.  We eventually did catch 3 goliath groupers which was cool.  Finally made a last couple moves and the last 20 minutes I tried the last set of numbers I had out there and hoped to get lucky.  It worked and we hooked a nice 60 lb tarpon that John landed fairly quick, though he put on a good show.  Amazing how the fishing can change like that from one day to the next, though any day you get a tarpon is a good one especially this time of year!  Hard work and persistence paid off.  1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Back in town again and back on the hunt for tarpon today.  We got out early and stumbled into some decent bait around the islands with the last of the incoming tide this morning.  Had to work a little at it but managed to catch 3 dozen or so.  Ran off the beach and had caught the last trickle of incoming tide, so we had to sit and wait for the tide change which took close to an hour.  Just a few sharks while we waited.  Once the tide got rolling some more sharks started to bite, got a nice little hammerhead among some others too, and eventually we moved around and saw a few tarpon roll.  I got in front of them and soon we were getting some tarpon action.  We caught a couple tarpon really quick both 40 lbers or so.  Then hooked a couple more one we battled for a few minutes but he jumped and threw the hook, the other we got up near the boat for pictures but he unfortunately broke off on the leader before we could get some good boat side pictures.  Finally we moved around a little more and hooked and caught about a 60 lber which fought very well.  We were able to subdue him and get some good boat side pictures.  Great job by Dylan and Dawson they each caught their first tarpon and then some, and also later on in the day they each got their first snook as well, plus plenty of mangrove snappers.  Fishing the next few days through the weekend then have some open days in mid august.  This is the last month for really consistent tarpon fishing if your down here, let’s go catch that silver king!  4 for 5

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Well yesterday I had just a half day and we caught some snappers for dinner and a couple other things.  Fishing wasn’t easy we had the last couple of days with hard southwest winds due to the rain storms around.  Today things were much nicer it was a light southwest wind and no rain.  I had leftover bait and we ran right to the channels to try some tarpon fishing.  We jumped one fish off after about 30 minutes and caught a shark.  Saw a few tarpon rolling but not a whole lot.  Eventually we ran out off the beaches to try and moved around a little but finally found a few fish.  I didn’t have a whole lot of bait but we were able to catch two and jumped another one off.  A few more sharks as well.  Things got very hot again today hopefully doesn’t hurt the fishing.  We did find a pile of mullet on the way home too.  Tomorrow I have a half day just rod bending, and then out of town for a week or so.  2 for 4

Capt. Rick Stanczyk