Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

9/29/19 – Been tough to keep up with things lately and forgot to post.  But we had a great day fishing a 3/4 day in the everglades with kevin & kevin.  We had great action with snook, a few juvenile goliath groupers, a couple redfish, and topped it off with a nice 15 lb tarpon!  Spectacular fishing on a windy day.  1 for 1

10/5/19 – Got out with Alan and Glen today for a full day.  We mixed it up a bit and got lucky and got a tarpon right off the bait, a bit unexpectedly on our jig and shrimp.  But there were some rolling around and we got in the right spot!  After that we caught some nice black drum, a few big snook, a handful of redfish, and then as many smaller snook as you could shake a stick at.  Good fishing again!  1 for 1

I have not been focusing 100% on tarpon too much, really seems that i’ve had the best luck fishing for other things and getting the chance tarpon bite.  When ya go all in I’ve just not had as much luck for whatever reason.  But fishing is stellar none the less if you are up for a mixed bag with a chance at tarpon!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with Jason and Clay today for a full day in the backcountry.  We mixed it up a but but tarpon was on their list.  Fished a little different area than the previous days, as the winds were howling a bit from the get go.  Lots of tarpon around here too, they seem to be everywhere blowing up the mullets and such.  We set up and put out some baits, anchored and then tried drifting as the current was absolutely ripping.  Jason got one nice 20 lb tarpon on the jig which was cool, unfortunately he came off at the boat before we could get him in for pictures, but a good catch none the less.  After that we didn’t get much more activity out of them and they seemed to quiet down.  So we switched gears to fish for other things.  Not much happening anywhere there with the falling tide, we jumped between 2 or 3 spots and then decided to make a bigger move.  Boy there were boats everywhere as I found out later there was a couple tournaments going on.  Running 50 miles from home you expect to be able to fish wherever you want, but not today several spots I wanted to go were taken!  Anyways we were still able to put together a good catch, had to dig in and grind hard, but we managed a good 15 or so snook, a half dozen redfish, a nice tripletail, and plenty of ladyfish, jacks, and snappers that kept us busy.  Had to pick a few fish in several spots and then finally the last stop of the day we got into a steady bite for about 30 minutes anyways.  Backcountry SLAM for Jason too!  1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Fun day with Eamon and Cecilia!  We fished the backcountry and tried for tarpon early on.  Still a bunch of them back there, going crazy with the mullet run happening.  We did manage to get a nice one early on, fishing our lighter gear on live bait.  A good 40 lb fish.  After that though, no other action out of them.  We focused on some bigger snook and such which was good the last few days for me, but today that seemed to die down we didn’t get any bites.  But we fished for smaller snook and redfish on some shorelines the rest of the day, which was fairly productive and lots of fun!  The winds kicked up a good bit by mid morning.  Looks like it’ll be a little breezy sunday/monday, but staying northeast so the bait run should continue.  1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing