Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with James today for a full day of tarpon fishing in Islamorada.  He was visiting from the UK.  We headed out early and went into the backcountry.  The winds were nice and calm, much calmer then they’ve been.  We’ve had a little bit of a windy August, not crazy windy but enough that it’s made the fishing a little tougher and churned up many of the backcountry areas with mud and such.  In the summer this happens much more easily with the warmer water temperatures so it doesn’t take much wind at all to do that.  Anyhow we found some bait early and found some tarpon where they were yesterday.  We didn’t have much tide to start but eventually it started coming in.  Though we did not get any response out of the tarpon!  Eventually they thinned out, we caught a few sharks and moved around a bit.  We finally got one tarpon to bite but he threw the hook unfortunately.  After that things dried up and we made a move to another area.  We found a good load of tarpon here – one of the biggest schools of seen this month with hundreds of tarpon!  They weren’t pulling us out of the boat though, we didn’t get much for about 30 minutes then finally jumped another small size fish.  Then we moved and after 20 minutes we hooked a bruiser about 120 lbs!  James fought him for 45 minutes and we got him boatside for some pictures.  After that we went back and the tarpon were still there, we hooked up pretty quick to an 80 lber that we fought for a little bit and landed.   After that though the big group of fish was gone.  We looked around and saw a handful but they were very spread out.  We decided to catch a little more bait and then found a small group of tarpon that were staying in somewhat of an area.  We set up and James hooked his last tarpon of the day a nice 45 lber that we landed.  All in all a great day, August has been a little tougher than July the fish have definitely been more finicky plus the wind that I’ve mentioned, but it’s still definitely been worth going.  Looks like we will have nice conditions into the weekend so I think the fishing could stay pretty good.  I have good availability from now on so don’t hesitate to call or email me, if it doesn’t look like it’s worth going I’m usually good with moving things around if possible which is a nice thing about the off season.  3 for 5

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

Got out with Willem today for a tarpon fishing trip.  He is a dutch angler visiting from overseas and really wanted to catch a tarpon!  We headed out early and luckily I had some bait stashed away from a few days ago.  Winds were kicking a little but not too crazy.  We’ve had a lot of wind this August overall and it’s made for a little tougher fishing than what we had in July.  We did not see many tarpon in the first area we stopped and so we moved to another.  We looked around and saw a few big busts that looked promising and then set up.  Sharks started to bite some but no tarpon action for us.  We continued to move around and then we saw some tarpon rolling!  Tide was coming in hard and we got set up.  We got a bite almost immediately and we landed a nice 40 lber!  After that we continued to see a few, we moved again and then hooked another 60 lber but unfortunately the line snapper I think it may of been hung in the bottom funny or something.  After that we jumped around more, still saw some tarpon but they got much more finicky.  We caught some more sharks but could not entice another tarpon.  We tried to catch some more bait as we were running low but they were being very tricky, we did see a couple more tarpon and used our last baits trying to get another one but that was it.  We decided to cut our day to a 3/4 day as I thought it may be tough to try and catch more bait and then have a realistic shot at another tarpon.  So we were glad to get one anyhow and a first for Willem!  I’ll be back at it tomorrow looks like the winds are finally going to lay down some through Friday anyhow.  I have Thursday or Friday available conditons look somewhat favorable.  There are definitely still some tarpon around though it’s not been a red hot bite, most days we’ve gotten a few shots and been glad to land one or two.  That could change though if we get some nice calm conditions for a good while.  1 for 2

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

Got out with Marty and his son Spencer for a 3/4 day today.  We left out early and headed into the backcountry.  Conditions weren’t great it was blowing 15-20 mph out of the southeast… very windy for this time of year.  The hard winds make it tough to see tarpon and they also just don’t really like it blowing that much either.  Also it can make the water very muddy and turbulent, tough for bait fish as well.  We tried a few spots for bait early but did not see much.  After the 3rd spot I was a little panic stricken, thinking we may have to do something else or even abandon our morning.  I told the guys we’d check one more area and then make a decision.  Luckily in this area the water was a little cleaner and we found some bait in the channel.  We had to work for it but caught plenty for our trip.  That whole process took nearly an hour and a half, but we were lucky and then found some tarpon in the channel mouth where we were.  We set up and had a few shark bites.  We moved around and then saw some tarpon jumping and tried to get lined up.  More sharks.  Then one more move and we had one roll behind us.  Soon Spencer was hooked up to his first tarpon!  We fought him for 15 minutes and he dragged us around, and got him to the boat for some good pictures.  Thankfully he did not come off, sometimes the rougher days its harder to keep the tarpon on too as the boat is bouncing all over the place and adds more pressure to the line then I like.  But we got the fish and we were happy.  We kept at it and moved a couple more times, dad eventually got a bite too but we missed the tarpon.  A few more sharks and it was almost time to go but I told the boys we’d give it an extra 30 minutes since we took so long catching bait.  We tried one other channel and did see a tarpon roll here, we got lined up and gave it a good effort but no bite just a few more sharks and catfish.  Anyways tough fishing but we made it happen, those are the days that make you appreciate tarpon.  When conditions are good it can look easy some times but to go out and get them when it’s not ideal conditions that can be tough.  Anyways I have a few days off and am actually open all through the weekend.  If anybody wants to go give me a shout.  Unfortunately we still are going to have a good bit of wind it looks like but saturday afternoon and sunday afternoon it is suppose to lay down some and then blow again in the morning.  But maybe they’ll be wrong and it could be nice in the morning.  1 for 2

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