Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

High winds out of the east today blowing 20 knots most of the day.  We are still in a very weird tidal phase.  Weak current in the backcountry but finally started moving in slowly.  We only had shark bites and some big jacks attack us fishing the channels back there.  Landed a few sharks and a big jack at least.  Mid day we decided to catch some dinner which we were able to do.  Finished the day up tarpon fishing around town again.  The tide was slack when I got there, very strange because it turned around 10 AM yesterday so it should of been falling until 5 PM or so.  But anyways we waited it out and finally around 2:30 the tide was moving in again.  In a couple more days things will hopefully be back to a normal schedule with tides.  We got our tarpon bite a nice 60 lb fish that almost jumped in the boat.  We landed him and went home, good way to end the day!  1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Well today was first official ‘tarpon trip’ for the year.  While we’ve already caught a few we’ve mostly been focusing on other things and just giving the tarpon shot a little bit of time.  Anyways we caught mullet early this morning a few starting to gather in the local areas.  It was tough had to throw 15 times to catch 2 dozen baits, but we got ’em.  Anyways I fished locally around Islamorada where I’d been seeing fish, not much first thing this morning though.  Very weak tide and took a while to turn.  Anyways I ran all over checking the bridges, bays, and other channels.  Did not see much of anything as far as tarpon went.  Finally for the last bit of the morning we went back to where we were first thing, tide was falling better now.  Saw quite a few fish rolling and we set up and eventually hooked a nice 40 lber.  Landed him and that was that, glad we got one.  Anyways I would say it is still a bit early to really put all your eggs in the ‘tarpon’ basket – likely best to do other things and just try for tarpon for part of the day.  Though as we continue into March it should get better especially once the water gets closer in the 80 degree range.  And a nice calm sunny day will likely start bringing some bigger schools of fish in.  1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Well today the conditions were much nicer.  We started out in the backcountry and did have a bit of fog and chill in the air, slight north breezy in the morning.  We messed around with some smaller fish, redfish, trout, etc…  Tried tarpon fishing one of the backcountry channels and caught several sharks and a cobia.  Did see one tarpon roll, but tough to get past the sharks.  Definitely not a lot of tarpon in the area though I did not think as the wind at this point had laid down and was fairly calm, sunny – the type of conditions where you would normally see plenty.  Anyways we ran back towards Islamorada and finished up in the local channels we fished the other day.  Saw a few rolling fish, had one flash behind the boat eating some bait.  Though he did not bite for us right away.  Eventually we hooked and landed a nice 60 lb fish, great way to end the day.  David got to catch the fish he’d been after!  1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk