Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Well we are supposedly in for more rain and have had a bit the last couple days.  Very unusual weather for june these prolonged rainy days.  Today we tarpon fished all day and saw plenty of fish though they were not biting well.  We did catch 1 nice 100 lb fish on dead bait and had a another solid bite on a bottom rod that we are not sure what it was but likely a tarpon as it just scaled the mullet.  We had a few ‘cheap shots’ on surface live mullets but never got the actual bait.  Yesterday I did not tarpon fish but the day before we did give it an hour in the morning before doing other stuff and did get about a 60 lb tarpon to start the day again on dead bait.  Right now the best bet for tarpon fishing in islamorada is catching the falling tide either later in the evening (from 7:00 on) or early in the morning (before day break).  I am pretty booked up through June though have some evenings available and a handful of mornings.  July can still be great tarpon fishing if your interested in tarpon fishing in July drop me a line.  I am not fishing every day then so I am open to doing later evenings or early morning trips to get you on the ‘hot bite.’

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903
rick@islamoradatarpon.com

Well we have had a lot of rain the last few days so I haven’t gotten out much.  A couple days ago we did stick locally and didn’t get rained on too much.  Ended up catching 1 nice big tarpon which we fought a while on a dead mullet.  Tonight is the first trip i’ve had since then and we got 2 80 lb tarpon again on dead bait.  Not much was going on with the livies nor on the crabs, though we had rain this morning and a nice late afternoon/evening until around 7:15 when the big rain rolled in.  We decided to pack it in at this point having caught 2 fish already.  Looks like the rain will start to clear somewhat tomorrow and much lighter winds too, hooray!  Looking forward to some june islamorada fishing for tarpon.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903
rick@islamoradatarpon.com

Had some may tarpon fishing charters in islamroada the last couple days.  Last night we caught a double header in the memorial day craziness!  Fishing dead bait we hooked a 100 lber and a 50 lber.  Chased the 100 lber and luckily the 50 followed us and we got a leadered release on him.  Followed the 100 lber for a while and had an armada of jet skis circling us looking on.  We were able to release him as well and then call it a night not bad for a couple hours of fishing!  Today we caught some live mullet early this AM but the fishing was a little tough.  We saw fish everywhere we went locally including the local channels and down by channel 5 bridge but they were not really biting.  A couple nervous baits that looked like they would get slammed and one fish rolled on a bait but no bite.  We ended up catching a nice 100 lber though again on a bottom bait plus a few other sharks including a nice big bull shark.  The wind was howling today though so we will take it.  As we get more into June the dead baiting will be more and more popular as will fishing crabs especially a little earlier in the mornings and in the evenings.  I have some evenings trips as well as morning trips available still or a full day in the backcountry can be good too!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903
rick@islamoradatarpon.com