Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out for Day 2 with Brandon, Kevin, Ron, and Charlie.  Bait was fairly easy and we caught a good amount with one throw of the net.  We tried tarpon early on where we had some luck yesterday, but today no dice.  Saw a few fish in the general area, but no bites we moved a couple times and just some sharks.  The boys wanted to mix it up with some action so we did that next.  Plenty of redfish and some snook, and we did get a little tarpon there too!  After that we came across a big school of tarpon in another area!  Not monsters, but our typical summer time fish in the 20 to 50 lb range.  We got them going on live baits, and hooked a couple double headers!  I’ll say we got 3 to the boat and jumped another off.  Was very exciting for sure on our light tackle too.  After that we caught a bunch more redfish and a few trout and a nice snook.  Wow just what a day these guys are lucky to have experienced the past two days like they did, we don’t see fishing like this all the time!  4 for 5

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

(tarpon under 40 inches we are allowed to pick up for quick pictures, then release unharmed back into the water without dropping or stressing them out too much)

Great day with Charlie, Ron, Brandon, and Kevin. Charlie and Ron fished with me last year and experienced some great tarpon fishing. We started off with that today. Caught a bit of bait on the way and fished some areas that looked good. Saw a few fish and didn’t take long and both Kevin and Brandon landed a tarpon! One big one too almost 100 lber! The tide quit and we looked elsewhere. Found some fish where I was last week and the tide was starting to fall. However they weren’t so happy we moved a couple times and finally hooked up but we got wrapped up in some hard bottom and broke the tarpon off. A few sharks kept us busy though. After that things seemed to quiet down, so we decided to take a look for something else. We got lucky and found the motherboard of permit! It was action as fast as you could cast for a bit. We caught several doubles and even hooked a triple header! Even threw some artificials as we ran out of crabs and had luck with that! Just a banner way to go ish our day and something special to see. After that we headed home. Back at it tomorrow with this crew again, hope were twice as lucky tomorrow but I’ll be happy if we’re half as lucky!  2 for 3

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

6/18/19 – Had Ed and Rochelle out today!  We ran out early into the backcountry.  Found tarpon where I’d been fishing the last week or more again.  We got one straight away and Rochelle landed a nice 80 lber!  After that we had a couple more bites but just couldn’t keep ’em hooked!  Caught a couple nurse sharks and then we decided to switch gears.  Snook/redfish fishing was tough for us we caught one redfish and catfish every where we went.  Southwest wind and hard tides with the full moon made it not so great in all the areas where i’d been doing well recently.   Anyways at least the tarpon fishing was good for us!  1 for 3

6/19/19 – Wow what a day with Max and his girlfriend Ella! Max was after tarpon and hopefully a permit. He’d hooked some tarpon before but never got one to the hand so we hoped to change that. We ran out into the Backcountry and found some happy fish. Didn’t take long and Max was hooked up! He was a great angler and took instruction well, bowing to the king, not pulling too hard when the fish was going berserk, and applying pressure when the fish wasnt running hard. He ended up catching three! His girlfriend Ella also caught one which was awesome. After that we decided to see if we could find Max a permit. It was a bit rough but not too bad at all for the Contender Bay Boat. We found the water looking nice despite the southerly wind. As soon as we drifted in we saw a huge school of permit! We hooked one and Max landed his first Permit! After that they got a little tougher… Just staying deep and running, harder to see with the swells. We had a few more shots and did hook one more but a shark got it. After that we headed back towards home! What a day, it’s always great when you can fulfill somebodies fish wish, especially two of them!  4 for 4

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