Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Well the winds were howling and the front came through the last few days.  Yesterday we patch fished on the ocean side since it was nasty out.  We caught plenty of fish out there and gave it a try for the last hour for tarpon.  No bites unfortunately so my april catch streak is over – though this wasn’t really a full on tarpon trip since we did other stuff – but my other guide buddy did have two bites and caught them.  The water temperature did not drop too dramatically locally so the fish are still around.  Today they were biting well this morning.  We patch fished again in the morning and then gave the last couple hours to tarpon fishing the bridges.  We had action pretty quickly, jumping a fish off, having another one break us off on the bottom, a 3rd steal a mullet, and finally hooked into a nice 85 lb fish we chased through the bridge and landed.  All within 45 minutes.  Then I had a mid afternoon trip, not an ideal time to go tarpon fishing but some people are on a schedule.  We did have good action though.  Hooked a couple fish but unfortunately did not land them.  One we broke off on a bridge piling and the other tried to do the same thing but we caught up with him and he went through the bridge but we pulled the hook.  We had another half dozen fish flashing and chasing the baits.  They were biting strangely today not a single real bust on a bait, rather they were just slurping them down or flashing them very lazily.  Hopefully tomorrow is as good I’ve got a full day tarpon trip and an evening tarpon trip!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Well the winds howled today 20 knots out of the southwest.  It made for a little uncomfortable ride though nothing too bad just a little spray.  I ran into the backcountry hoping that at least a few of the tarpon that were back there the last few days would still remain.  Unfortunately the wind had swung around west enough where it had made the channels complete mud holes.  I had caught tarpon in worse, but not today.  We did catch plenty of sharks though.  Anyways I tried a couple spots in the channels then ran and tried another more protected backcountry channel, and nothing but sharks.  So we ran back near islamorada in hopes of finding an afternoon local fish.  We got lucky and caught a nice 85 lber which made the day and also kept my April streak alive!  Unfortunately we are getting a cold front tonight and tomorrow night and the temps are going to get into the 60s, likely slowing down the tarpon fishing for a few days.  Hopefully tomorrow the water stays in the mid 70s as I have a tarpon trip on the books!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Fished a full day today and got to run back into the florida keys everglades to tarpon fish.  We had some mullet left over from the other day and a few freshies as well.  The winds were hard out of the southeast making for a little bumpy ride but nothing my seacraft couldn’t handle.  We set up in the channels and soon enough we had our first fish on.  We landed him and then set back up.  After 45 minutes or so we hooked a double header!  One we didn’t think was a tarpon and we raced up near it, grabbed the leader, and then up jumps a tarpon!  Popped him off and went after the other one.  What fun!  We then had another one we had on and got near the boat but pulled the hook on though had the leader to the tip so a technical release.  Jumped another 4 fish at least making us 4 for 8 for the day – great tarpon fishing in islamorada!  We also had some bonuses including a variety of sharks, a big 250 lb tiger shark, and a cobia!  You can’t beat a day fishing like that in the florida keys in april.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk