Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Well another wet and rainy one today.  The morning was nice though.  Little bit of a southerly breeze but nothing too crazy.  I had Mark and his son Casey.  We were after tarpon and had just enough bait leftover that I figured we’d make the long run where I was going last week and just go for it.  Left early to catch the last of the falling tide.  One thing about this area, the tide change is very slow, so if you catch the slack tide you are going to be sitting and twiddling your thumbs for an hour or more.  We had a good 2 hours of tide thankfully with the early departure, that is one reason I’m big on being on time!  We saw more fish than I saw the few previous times I went last week, but they weren’t responding.  We had to move a few times, then finally got in the spot that felt right.  Soon Casey hooked a nice 75 lb tarpon that we fought for a bit and got boatside for some pictures!  Luckily we still had a little current, and dad hooked one but unfortunately he came off instantly.  Then the tide slowly quit.  We decided to look around for a bit while we waited for the current to change as we were limited on our bait supply.  Didn’t see much, and eventually the tide turned so we tried again.  Saw a handful of fish but nothing like before, but we gave it a good 30-40 minutes and didn’t get another bite.  We went to plan B but when we left I could tell things were getting nasty towards home.  The winds had kicked up a bit.  We caught a few redfish but the fish seemed shut down, I could hear snook popping but we never got a bite out of one.  Soon squalls got closer and it started blowing 35 mph and raining.  We called it a day and boogied toward home.  Made for an adventurous ride but thankfully the Contender boat could handle it, just got a little wet.  But all in all we made our day with a nice tarpon and a few redfish.  Back at it tomorrow… now the big question is where to get bait as it’s not easy to catch right now and it’s not quite consistently catchable in the summer time backcountry areas yet.  We’ll see what happens!  1 for 2

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

Got out with Mark, Kurt, and Doug today for Marks 50th birthday fishing trip!  Tarpon was the focus and we decided to leave early and head back into the everglades.  We found some fish early in one of the channels with the last trickle of falling tide.  They didn’t really respond though… but did get a good handful of sharks.  The tide quit and started to change, and we looked around and gave it one more whirl, but the body of fish seemed to have moved on at that point.  We then decided to run further into the backcountry and check the area where I’d been fishing a little more lately.  We didn’t see a whole lot there, but set up anyways.  After a bit we hooked up.  We ended up getting 3 fish there, no fast and furious rallies but putting time in and waiting 20-30 minutes between all the guys got to catch a silver king!  Such a beautiful setting up there too.  After that we had a little time left so we hit the gulf to look for permit.  There were a couple other boats already out on the spot, we trolled around and did get one good shot on the permit but unfortunately it was a tough one having to throw behind the boat and we didn’t get it in the right place.  Never saw them again.  Hoped to run a school over on the way home but no such luck.  Anyways still a great day.  Have the next couple days off though may go fun fishing tomorrow.  Be back at it Monday!  3 for 3

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

Got out with Jakob and Camille visiting from Denmark.  Jakob was after the silver king, but wasn’t opposed to trying other things as well.  Luckily as of late we’ve had quite a few things going on that have been good as far as fishing goes.  We tarpon fished early… found fish in the same area I’ve been fishing the last week or so.  No tide when we got there, so we sat and waited.  Finally after 45 minutes or so and a couple moves, we hooked up and Jakob got a nice 25 lb tarpon!  We put the baits back up and sat and talked.  After another 30 minutes or so, we hooked a nicer size fish about 75 lbs!  This one fought and dragged us around for a good while.  We finally got her landed and got some good pictures.  Jakob was thrilled!  We looked around and explored some areas back there, and did find another group of small tarpon.  We had one eat a pinfish but missed the bite, and then the rest didn’t want to respond.  After that we went into the gulf and caught a nice permit on a wreck.  Then we got a half dozen snook on the way home.  Good variety of quality fish for my friend from Denmark!  2 for 3

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