Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with Brandi and her parents Sidney and Carol.  Brandi was down from NY and her parents live in South Carolina, taking a break due to the recent hurricane up there.  They had wanted to fish a few days ago but I was booked, but were able to make it work out today.  Sidney wanted to catch a tarpon and I told them I was their guy!  We headed out early and went after some bait.  I went yesterday just to try and stock up on some bait as I’m booked all this week now, but it was tough we didn’t get much and by the time I found good bait, it was too late and they weren’t very catchable.  But we went to the right spot early today and we got them fairly good which is nice so I have a bit of bait for the next few days too if they are hard again.  We found some tarpon in closer then where I had been going, thanks to a good report from a fellow captain.  They were flopping and jumping around pretty good and some larger fish too, 30 to 60 lbers, not like the 20-30 lbs I’d been getting lately.  We hooked a double header to start and landed both fish, but the bigger one took a while as he was foul hooked so we didn’t get a picture with both as I didn’t want to take a chance of the smaller one dying while we fought the bigger one.  After that we got another nice one for Brandi about a 60 lber!  After that we moved around a bit, I could see tarpon jumping about as far as I could see so a lot of fish spread out but wow what a school.  The next move we started to miss a few fish, we jumped off two big ones right in a row and had a third one grab a bait and make a huge boil and drop it, and then Carol got to land hers about a 50 lber.  We called it a morning after that.  Just great fishing and it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.  It was a full moon which I sometimes don’t like but that did not bother the fish at all.  Back at it tomorrow as I said I think we will have another week of epic September tarpon fishing.  4 for 7.

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

Got out with Jara and Michael today down from Stuart.  We fished a 3/4 day and got a good early start.  Bait was not as easy as yesterday, but we worked at it and got what we needed.  The tide was bottomed out first thing yesterday whereas today we had to wait an hour for that and by then the sun was up, but we were able to pick at them until that point anyhow.  We found tarpon where we left them yesterday.  Didn’t see as active today as we didn’t see them jumping around, flopping, splashing, as much.  But they were there.  We had to move around a little too.  But Michael got a couple nice ones early one.  Jara had one to the leader that popped off, then later after a move got another one to the hand that didn’t cooperate for a picture, then finally got one that we were careful with that she was able to hold for a picture!  We also got some sharks including a couple big lemons and several blacktips.  Great day of fishing for sure!  I have the next couple of days open, and Wednesday as well.  If anyone wants to go give me a shout I think it’ll stay good!  5 for 10

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

Banner day for Pete and Bonnie who were visiting from San Diego. Pete sent me a message a few days ago asking about tarpon fishing, I told him I hadn’t been fishing much in the last week as it’s off season but the few times I’d been earlier this month, it’s been really good. September has really been on fire and I really wish I had more customers right now, but you do need a little break sometimes. Anyways we gave it a whirl. Conditions looked pretty good it was slick calm yesterday but today we had a light northeasterly breeze, nice as it cooled things off a little bit. Bait was not too bad which was great too as it had been a little tougher finding the right bait the last month. We looked around and found a handful of tarpon early on on the last of the falling tide, but the water looked really ugly with lots of mud and just didn’t feel right. So we fished another area close by while we waited for the tide to change. I was hoping when the tide came in, some more tarpon and life would come with it. We didn’t catch much where we were but that gave enough time for the tide to swing around, and we went and checked and found a good group of tarpon. Right away Bonnie landed a nice one first bait out. Then we proceeded to catch a bunch more! We hooked a couple double headers though I don’t think we ever landed two at once, but it got hard to keep track of to be honest. We did have one 60 lber we hooked that spit the bait, and as soon as it hit the water another 25 lber ate it again it was incredible! The tarpon chewed voraciously for a good two hours and both Pete and Bonnie each landed multiple fish, almost losing count of the bites. I had told them I didn’t mind keeping them out a couple extra hours if we didn’t have good fishing being off season and all, but that was not a problem! The last 30 minutes or so though the tarpon seemed to shut right off as quickly as they turned on, but we had caught plenty and had some soar arms. We headed on back making it a nice 3/4 day trip, doesn’t get better than that. As far as the tarpon ratio per trip goes, September has been the best fishing I’ve had all year! While I’ve only been out a half dozen days, we’ve hammered them every day. Looks like conditions will be similar throughout the next week or so. I’ve got Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday open this coming week, and then plenty of days in early October. Give me a shout if you want to get in on the tail end of tarpon season here in the Florida Keys it’s been epic!  9 for 13

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