Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Some days you just get lucky, or maybe it’s years of doing this? I had Ella, Delaney, lane, and dad Chris down for the day. We’ve had to work at fishing a bit the last week, been tough with the wind and hard on the bait too. I had a little bit of leftovers from last week for bait, we tried to catch some but struck out with that. So we went with what we had. We saw a few tarpon when we got in the area and set up. A few sharks to start. We saw a bit of activity way further out and we picked up and moved. Didn’t see much for signs of the silver king but between my eyes and the electronics we sat where I thought might be good. Sure enough within a few minutes a tarpon rolled right on top of our bait and Lane had a bite that we missed. A few more went by and the girls had the rods, they both hooked up soon after with a double header! They fought the fish well, maneuvering like pros around the boat. We got both fish up for nice pictures. After that we fished the rest of our bait hard, made one more move and dad got himself a tarpon! After that we were about out of bait. We decided to mix it up and tried fishing our artificials but didnt have a whole lot of luck with that. We did catch a few trout though. We found some more bait though and were able to load up for the next few days, as this crew had me again Thursday. Tried a couple spots for reds when the tide came in, but again not much luck with that either. But I’ll take 3 tarpon any day of the week!  3 for 4

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

Went after some tarpon today on a 3/4 day trip.  Winds were honking a bit again for this time of year, and again looks like that trend will continue through the week.  Also coming up on the full moon tonight.  We found a good amount of tarpon right where we left them yesterday, however they were a little finicky today!  We did get bit to start off within 20 minutes or so, but the fish jumped at us and spit the bait right away.  After that we jumped around about 5 times, catching some sharks and such to keep us busy including some big lemons, blacktips and nurse sharks.  We were in tarpon every move, but they just didn’t want to play.  May have been the full moon, or the wind, or some combination of both.  But I always tell people booking ahead of time try and avoid right around the full moons as often it can make for tougher day time fishing as I think they feed more at night then.  However this was a more short notice trip so you have to work with what you got.  But we still were able to make it happen after a couple hours as the tide  quit and turned in, we jumped another tarpon and then a few minutes later the other rod went off and we hooked a nice 55 lber.  Got him in for pictures so that was great.  I thought they might feed more with the tide turning, but they kind of seemed to die out.  We had a few tarpon go by us again but no more bites and then didn’t see much.  Anyways at least there is a good group of them back there.  Hopefully they’ll be a little happier tomorrow we’ll see.  1 for 3

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

Fantastic day with return customers Chris and his son Thiago. Winds were kicking a bit for this time of year, and looks like that’ll continue for a bit into next week. At least it was more southeasterly instead of the West wind we had last week. We found some tarpon early on where we first stopped which was nice. Had to move around to get lined up right, but soon Chris caught a nice 40 lber. Thiago got the next one about a 65 lber! A few blacktips and a nurse shark after that. As the tide quit, we jumped 1 more tarpon that came at us on the bite. Always harder to hook when they do that. We went for a ride after that since the tide was slacking. Checked a few other area but didn’t see a whole lot to get excited about. We went tripletailing after that. Saw a decent amount and caught a nice 10 lber to start! A couple other small ones, and the rest were very Leary about eating bait! They were looking at it but not committing. We saw a few more tarpon as we were looking so we gave that another whirl. Soon Thiago had another nice one on about a 70 lber that we landed. A bit later Chris got another good one about 60 lbs, we got the leader on and he got under the boat though. Quite a few more tripletails going by during that we had enough time to catch a couple more as they got happier. Did see about a 15 lber that didnt want to eat but got us very excited! After that called it a day. So great fishing hopefully the tarpon stick around a bit longer.  4 for 6

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