Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Well the front came here today we had stiff breezes out of the west today but not much rain thankfully.  We did some rod bending early and caught some stuff for dinner, then gave it a try for tarpon the last couple hours.  I had some dead mullet from yesterday still so we set up and put baits on the bottom.  We hooked what I thought was a shark within 20 minutes or so, it didn’t jump for a few minutes and ran out line steadily.  Finally a nice 75 lb tarpon leaped airborne and we gave chase.   Caught him after a 20 minute fight and several more nice jumps.  After that we caught multiple large jacks up to 12 lbs and a couple big nurse sharks.  Not too shabby for a nasty day with the west wind.  Came in after 4 hours cutting it too a half day.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

We fished a half day this morning.  Mullets were thick right in the marina basin, we caught plenty in a few throws, big balls of mullet that we like to see in the spring with tarpon even busting them.  I tried some of the local channels for the first 45 minutes, end of the falling tide.  Tough to fish as tide was into the wind hard.  Saw several fish rolling, but not active or happy.  We went and caught snappers for dinner then gave it a try again once the tide turned.  Now the wind and current were together, much easier to fish.  We put live and dead baits out, within a few minutes we had a nervous mullet and a hungry tarpon after him.  He finally hammered him and we caught him – a nice 40 lb fish.  We went back and more of the same, missed several on the live baits, lost one around a lobster bouy, but ended up catching a couple more.  The mullets were very large so tough to eat for resident size 40-60 lb fish.  But fun as heck to watch them blow the mullets up!  We ended up catching 3 out of 10 or so, epic fishing in only about 2 hours.  Things will likely change though, incoming cold front will slow it down again for a little bit, but will likely be a good thing overall as if it is too nice early in the season may and june can be tougher fishing for tarpon.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

We gave it a go today again.  Caught some bait early and tried the local islamorada tarpon fishing channels.  Not much activity on the last of the falling tide.  We left when the tide quit and caught some more mullet in some big muds.  Ran into the backcountry to give it a whirl.  Had falling tide back there for a while and fish were rolling a bit, but not very active.  Half a dozen boats were out there but I did not see any of them fighting tarpon, I think they are still being picky.  The wind had swung around southeast and was fairly light, plus overcast, seemed it would of been a good condition.  We caught several sharks and a couple big ‘mud marlin’.  Later in the day we tried around town, and when the tide switched again we finally hooked up.  Nice 50 lb tarpon to end the day.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk