Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Today we hung close to home.  Crushed the mullets in the morning and fished the local channels, stayed in one channel all day.  We caught 4 out of 8 fish that we got hooks in.  We also had another dozen or so ‘cheap shots.’  This is where a tarpon busts a mullet but misses it.  Sometimes they seem more or less like they are just playing with the bait, other times they really are trying to eat it but just don’t get it.  Anyways it is all part of the excitement of catching big tarpon in islamorada.  The tarpon fishing with mullet in islamorada is on fire right now, so many fish being caught and lots of big boys all over the place.  Yesterday we just tarpon fished for a little while, we did catch one.  We also caught a big goliath grouper, several sharks, redfish, snook, and more that day too to mix things up a bit.  Anyways after 5 days of fishing that makes 13 tarpon to the boat, average size 80 lbs,  plus lots of other things for my UK anglers.  Great tarpon fishing in april here in Islamorada.

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

Spent the day tarpon fishing islamorada again today.  Here is my islamorada tarpon fishing report for april 23 2013.  The mullet were thick this AM, found several big balls, made one throw and had a well full plus several dead from the previous day.  We caught 2 out of 3 fish early in the day around ‘downtown islamorada.’  All on fresh dead mullet.  This was on the incoming tide and when it started to die and the sun rose, the fishing slowed.  We moved down to channel 2, not much action there several nurse sharks but did get a big cuda on a live mullet which was an exciting bite.  Tried channel 5 bridge next, lots of fish there we finally got one to eat again on the bottom.  However he pulled us into some underwater structure and broke us off.  And again lots more nurse sharks and sting rays, no action on the live surface baits.  Anyways 2 out of 4 is still fine by me for big tarpon in the florida keys!

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

Well yesterday we caught 1 out of 3 tarpon in the backcountry everglades tarpon fishing in the morning.  We finished the day doing other things mostly triple tail fishing which is lots of fun!  Today was special we caught a load of mullet in the morning, big balls of them were everywhere with birds bombing – just what I like to see on my way out to the fishing grounds!  After a couple throws we had a livewell full and a cooler full.  We fished the backcountry again but it was tough lots of weed and not many fish willing to eat.  Had one follow a bait in but didn’t strike it as it had nasty red weed on it.  Tried another spot but kept getting eaten up by sharks.   So frustrated we headed back towards Islamorada since it was overcast and we had falling tide, a decent tarpon fishing condition.  We went to one of my favorite spots as of late just a few miles from the marina.  Another boat was fighting a fish which is always a good sign.  We anchored up and within 5 minutes hooked a nice tarpon.  Chased him and caught him and the other boat went home.  We ended up catching 4 more and missed one that tried to eat a live bait.  Great way to end our day.  We went back out this evening on another trip to the same spot, and caught 6 more tarpon ranging from 60 to 100 lbs.  Pretty crazy bite 11 out of 12 tarpon in about 7 hours of fishing, doesn’t get much better than that!

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