Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with Clark and his dad Dwight for a full day of tarpon fishing.  We headed out early in search of bait as I was fresh out after staying close to home the last couple days.  We still had a little nasty southwest wind, but it laid off somewhat from yesterday and got nicer as the day went on and was swinging more south/southeast by days end.  To start we didnt’ see much for bait and we looked in several areas.  I missed them though and my buddy called me and got them good in one of the channels we did not go through.  He was nice enough to make a throw for us which saved us for sure.  We tried some channels in the back, didn’t see a whole lot but did catch a few big lemon sharks.  Finally saw a tarpon roll and moved nearby but no bites.  Tide was still falling and we checked another channel.  Saw a little activity on the surface but not sure what it was, after a bit another shark and then we definitely saw a tarpon roll, followed by another a little later and then another.  Seemed that there were a few.  We moved around a couple times and did get lined up ahead of some but they didn’t want to play.  The tide about quit and we ran further west to try another area where the tide was coming in now.  More sharks here several nice blacktips, thought we may of had some tarpon going by but not 100% sure.  No bites though.  We did look around more and found some more bait which we got one good shot on and caught a dozen.  We then ran back near where we started the morning, hoping that with the tidal change those handful of fish would get more responsive.  We stopped short though as we saw some good looking activity in a normal tarpon haunt.  As soon as we slowed down I knew we were in the mother load!  We put a couple baits out and got a shark right away and then Dwight got a nice 40 lb tarpon!  We fought him and Clark hooked a smaller 25 lber right away after that but he spit the hook.  We landed Dwights fish and got some pictures.  Then the sharks started to tear us up.  I could see the big body of fish seemed to be moving so we followed pursuit and my buddy from this morning had joined us as I had to tell him the fish were there as he gave us bait.  We got reset and then after 10 minutes hooked another nice 55 lb tarpon!  Clark caught this one, a great battle and nice jumps.  Clark was definitely thrilled to catch his first tarpon after going a couple trips years ago without even getting a bite, which can happen unfortunately.  After that the fish seemed to have moved further on, we tried to get lined up on them again and did get around a few but no more bites just some sharks.  After that it was about the end of the day, a park ranger stopped us to give us a safety check.  We tried one more spot on the way home for 15 minutes but no love.  Anyways good to see a big group of tarpon showing back up we must’ve caught them right as they were coming in.  They definitely were not settled in but with the wind going back southeasterly and getting nice tomorrow, it could be game on!  Never any guarantees in fishing though, you got to get out there and just try!  2 for 3

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

Got out with James today for a tarpon fishing charter in Islamorada.  We had some leftover bait from my brother as he was going to go last night but didn’t, and we did catch a few fresh ones nearby too.  There was definitely some weather still rolling around and the stiff southwest breeze which had been cruddy for the backcountry fishing I normally do the last couple days.  I gave James the options of fishing local like we did yesterday and just fishing till we ran out of bait for tarpon around the bridges, or running out into the backcountry to do other stuff and possibly getting lucky and finding a tarpon back there.  He wasn’t real sure so he let me choose and being that we had good fishing yesterday for tarpon locally I figured we’d try that again.  Unfortunately today was a different story.  We set up in the same area we were yesterday but no tarpon love.  Did get a few nurse sharks and a big cubera snapper which was cool.  We moved several times, and had a couple other boats down there doing the same thing.  But nobody had a hook up that I saw, funny because it was the same conditions really.  Got near the tide change and I thought for sure they’d turn on but no signs of life from them.  I did see  a few on the sonar so I know they were there just not wanting to play.  We tried another bridge for the last 40 minutes or so, and I even gave it an extra hour since I know we had a full day scheduled originally but at this point it didn’t really make sense to stay out as we were out of bait and running into the backcountry at 10:30 was not going to be a productive option plus nasty storms back there starting to roll in.  Oh well was bound to strike out at some point and case in point about why I hate the ‘around town’ fishing it’s just not consistent any more these days.  Looks like the weather will be getting slightly better the next few days, Thursday it might lay down more and be swinging more southeast then more easterly by Friday.  We should get better fishing out back then hopefully for my last week of fishing here before we head out of town the first week of August.  0 for 0

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

The weather looked a little nasty to start today.  We still had a stiff westerly breeze with several lines of thunderstorms rolling in early.  No way to leave the dock at my normal early departure time with all the lightning around.  We decided to wait and see what it looked like around 7 AM.  Things cleared up enough but I honestly still wasn’t super excited about going as we had a limited bait supply and with the conditions changing I knew fishing would likely be tough.  But I did have a good tip there were a few fish around some of the bridges and that may be a good option.  We looked around locally nearby first, and didn’t see much in a couple spots but eventually did find a school of tarpon.  We lined up and got in their zone, did have one come up and roll in our baits and thought we’d get him but no love.  After that they seemed to disappear.  I was bummed as I thought that may of been our shot.  Anyways after that I knew the tidal stage was right to try around the bridge.  We ran there and looked around and set up near where I thought some fish might be and soon we hooked a 40 lber!  Landed him and several fish followed him around which was good, they were there!  We got him and set back up and then another 10 minutes later hooked a big mean 100 lber.  This fish we battled for a good hour chasing him all over for 1.5 miles.  Got it boat side and rolled over but just as we did he went through the leader so we didn’t get any good boatside pictures, oh well but a good catch none the less.  After that I thought things may be over with as the tide started ripping and we had a good deal of grass coming through making it a little more difficult to fish.  But the boys wanted to stay and we still had a half dozen baits left so we gave it longer.  About on our last bait we hooked another 100 lb tarpon and we ran him down getting the wind on leader on to our rod tip for a technical catch, but unfortunately we got a little too much heat on the fish and he surged and snapped the line.  You always have to go kind of easy on tarpon in the beginning of the fight as they are big strong fish, the more heat you put on them when they are ‘green’ running hard, jumping, etc… the more likely they will either throw the hook, or snap the line.  After they settle down and you get in that 20 yard tug-of-war where they are just barely swimming along but not rolling over, is when you put the wood to ’em.  Oh well a great day very happy to see such good fishing with less than ideal conditions and off of my usual backcountry routine this time of year.  Looks like we will have similar conditions tomorrow though the winds will (hopefully) lighten up a little.  Bait might be a tough thing too as I’m out of my stockpile now so that will be first on the list to do.  3 for 3

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