Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Well had the same crew from yesterday, different anglers though.  They wanted to get some tarpon too.  We saved our mullets on ice from the previous day and went into the backcountry.  Hit some different grounds this time and it paid off.  The grassy weed I was worried about wasn’t too bad, we saw fish rolling as soon as we got there.  Tide was slack so not a lot of action to start.  But after an hour we hooked a nice tarpon which we chased and caught.  The blacktips started getting our baits, though not as bad as the other day at least.  Eventually we hooked into another tarpon too which we chased and jumped off boatside, which was very exciting!  More sharks after that and the boys wanted to head in early as they had a late night.  Fishing them again tomorrow maybe we will do something else, or maybe we will look for the big boys again – have to wait and see!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Well gave ’em a break yesterday but we tarpon fished again today.  We loaded up on mullet and fished in the backcountry.  First couple baits in the water after 10 minutes we had a nice 90 lb fish hooked up which we fought and brought to the boat though he jumped off on the leader.  The fish lately are not cooperating well for boatside pictures!!  After that the blacktip sharks were horrendous again we caught over a dozen plus many more cut us off.  Tried a couple other areas and no luck, lots of grass/weed with the south wind.  Came back around town near channel 2 in islamorada and the current was ripping and lots of sargasm weed being blowin in with the south wind.  We fished for a bit, caught a big nurse shark, but no signs of tarpon so we came in early on a 3/4 day.  But still lots of fun, good action with sharks, and a big tarpon – beats where these guys came from where it was -13 degrees!!!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Well did a bit more tarpon fishing today around islamorada.  We fished down near channel 2 bridge tarpon fishing.  In the morning we fished the patches out front for dinner.  Then near mid day we looked for mullet muds which were plentiful just a few miles back in the bay.  We drifted in and in a few throws had a couple dozen mullet.  Perfect bait for tarpon.  We set up with the trolling motor near where we were seeing rolling fish.  Never had a strike on the live baits, but jumped one off on the dead bottom bait.  We were patient and the tide nearly quit, we moved a little bit further over where we had seen a fish roll last.  All of a sudden a 130 lb tarpon goes airborne and we have her on!  Tough fish we fought for over an hour, took us through the bridge and in between multiple pilings.  Almost cut us off and did frey the wind on leader pretty bad on barnacles.  But we got the technical release and the fish boatside for just a few seconds before the leader finally broke.  A true battle with the silver king!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk