Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Gave it a shot for the silver kings today again.  Caught mullet early this morning, a nice big mud in the bay.  We had to take our time and drift patiently but eventually got a good throw and lots of baits.  We tried a couple backcountry channels, did not see any tarpon rolling we did catch several sharks though.  Yesterday we had fished back there as well and same thing mostly sharks and a few other large creatures.  The water temperatures are a few degrees cooler there though so I think many of the fish are either shut down or have been a little flushed out of that area.  Anyways we hit some of the local islamorada channels in the afternoon.  Put a few dead baits out and within 30 minutes we hooked into a big 120 lb tarpon.  Fought it for about 45 minutes and finally landed it.  Angler Bill Levor, long time Bud n Marys customer, landed his largest fish ever a 120 lb tarpon!  Unfortunately I didn’t get any boat side pics though he did.  If we continue having this warm weather the tarpon should get back into swing into the backcountry and are already around town here locally, plus there are other big things to pull on back there too.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

I got cancelled today last minute so I went bait fishing this morning.  Wind had been blowing north and was still chilly the last few days though the water temperatures  were not extremly cold.  This morning it was around 72 degrees.  Anyways some friends came, Capt Dave and his buddy Gary.  We caught lots of mullet we found in a big mud on a flat.  Gary had never caught a tarpon and that was a bucket list fish for him, so I told him we would give it a couple hours.  I wanted to see what was going on anyways.  We set up in a channel close by the marina where there had been fish previously before the cold weather.  After a half hour or so we got a bite on the dead bait, a nice 75 lb fish.  We chased him and got some good jumps as you can see from the pictures and landed him in about 25 minutes or so.  We tried another area and caught and released several blacktip sharks.  So some shark action and a nice tarpon in a couple hours fishing with chilly water and northeast wind in february – not bad at all!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Well had an afternoon half day trip today.  Originally we were suppose to be doing a tarpon trip, however the customers wanted more action and I told them the tarpon fishing around town middle of the day would likely be tough duty.  Especially with a honking 15 kt south/south east wind.  So we caught a bunch of snappers for dinner, some big jacks, and then just gave it a try for the last hour.  I had caught a load of mullet early this AM so we had plenty of fresh bait.  We put dead baits out in one of the channels and had several black tip sharks.  After 40 minutes or so I saw a couple fish roll – good sign.  Within 10 minutes we had a big 100 lb tarpon on.  A few nice jumps and one that gave in fairly easy, had him boatside within 20 minutes, just in time to head on home.  So every tarpon trip so far this february has been a success, not a lot of fish on any given day but at least one and a few days with two.  That’s really good in my book for the first couple weeks of february!  Though the fun may be over for a little bit we have a cold front coming through.  20 knots out of the west tomorrow, then north for a few days.  Not going to get really cold but will likely slow the tarpon fishing down for at least a few days until it gets nice again.  But who knows may give it a shot tomorrow if it’s really looking nasty in the backcountry!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk