Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Last day with John and Jan. Winds were howling a good 25 mph today mostly out of the east. Made for some blustery conditions out there. We decided to stay somewhat closer to home. We gave tarpon a whirl early on. Very tough conditions to fish, plus the sargasm weed was intense to say the last. Almost every bait you put out you were throwing it into patches of weed, so just a lot of clearing baits and not much clean fishing time for them. But we powered through and eventually got a few bites. Some sharks but then we jumped a tarpon! Soon after that a few more sharks, then finally John got hooked up on a nice 100 lb tarpon that we chased. A rough battle in choppy seas, but we got the fish boatside several times but he eventually went through the leader. Would’ve been tough to try to do much more with the fish with the rough conditions so we were happy with that, and got a few good jumping shots at least. After that we decided to leave the tarpon alone and went snapper fishing. Got our limit of nice snappers on cut bait and called it a day. Not too shabby and looks like it’ll be nicer for a while at least from what I see the next week they aren’t calling for more than 15 mph winds. Should be good for fishing. Back at it tomorrow they are saying we may get a little rain from this early tropical system thats developing, but I don’t think it’ll be too bad.  1 for 2

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

Had John and Jan out for Day 2. Bit windier today and got worse as the day went on. Water definitely got a bit mudded out in many areas. We had planned to make a far run up the coast, but we got a little side tracked early. Found some tarpon where we had some action yesterday and gave it a whirl. John caught a nice 60 lb tarpon, and a big lemon shark as well. We stayed but things died out after that. We then decided to run further back in hopes of finding some more tarpon. Didn’t see much up there however, just a handful and they didn’t really want to respond. Last year in this area I had found big schools of tarpon fairly regularly, but this year I’ve yet to see them there. We bailed and tried some snook/redfish spots. First stop not much just a few trout, but second stop we got in a decent little bite, catching 10 or so redfish, and a couple decent snook. Then the catfish showed up and it was time to go! We tried for tarpon again on the way back, and had seen a few fish again in the area but the wind was really cranking now and they didn’t respond. But all in all another decent day had to work at it a little bit, but a backcountry SLAM for john with the snook, redfish, trout, and tarpon.  1 for 1

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

Nice day with John and Jan. We fished the backcountry and tried a few different things. Tried a few snook spots early on, didn’t have much luck but then that changed and John landed a stud 13 lber or so! Also a handful of trout here. We then tried a different area and got into a good redfish bite. No monsters but a steady pick of fish kept us busy for an hour or so. We tried a couple other spots and picked a few more there too. On the way home we stopped and checked and area for tarpon. We found them and it didn’t take long after 5 minutes we almost had a double header but both fish came unbuttoned. Hard to hook em with the tide going into the wind. We hooked another that went through the leader, and then finally got one to stick for John. Landed that fish and we caught a few sharks and that wrapped up our day. Not bad for only really putting in an hour or so of fishing on tarpon.  Back at it again tomorrow with these two, not sure what we’re gonna do yet.  1 for 4

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