Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with return customer Dave and his buddy Rich today for some tarpon fishing.  We hit it out early and made the deep everglades run.  Was a little worried we had a wind shift and it was blowing out of the west which can really goof up our fishing sometimes.  Though the wind wasn’t cranking it was 5-10 mph.  I figured we’d give it a look back where I’d been going and could hit some other stuff on the way home if we stuck out.  Anyways it was pretty good back there, didn’t look real nice with an onshore breeze and swells kicking up some mud, but the fish were there.  We jumped a big tarpon to start with and caught a few sharks.  Then Rich got a big snook!  Later on Dave got a tarpon, and Rich jumped another tarpon.  Then Dave got a big snook too even bigger than the first one.  We caught a few big blacktips, a big lemon, and big nurse shark as well.  Constant action not going more than 5 minutes without a bite I don’t think.  By 9:30 or so though the tide quit and it seemed to be over with.  We decided to cut it short to a 3/4 day and headed on home.  My buddy found a few tarpon in one of the channels as we were riding home we saw him fighting a double header but he said it was his first bites of the day.  So at least that’s promising hopefully the channels a little closer will continue to get better as we get into July.  Back at it tomorrow.  1 for 3

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

Got out for a full day with Scott, Tom, and Tim down from Arizona.  We hit it early the boys were up for it.  Fishing was good today we caught bait on the way and proceeded to catch some fish!  The tide was trickling in when we got there and then slacked off.  Then it started to fall and things started to bite!  We didn’t miss a single tarpon bite and got eight fish to the hand, and one for a technical release for a total of nine!  Incredible!  We also got two bonus jumbo snooks, one of which got eaten by a shark unfortunately.  Also a few lemon sharks and black tips.  The tide only fell for a couple hours and then started in again which was strange.  Just an incredible day and my best day this season as far as landed fish goes.  I’m off tomorrow but back at it Thursday I think we will be doing this same routine.  Hope it stays like this for a while longer!  9 for 9

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

Got out with Sarah and Barry for day 2, they fished with me the day before yesterday.  The other day we blanked on the early morning deal.  It was surprising as it’s been pretty consistent for me the last 10 days or so.  The fish were there but just didn’t bite…  But yesterday I did well there so I figured we’d try it again.  Today it paid off.  We got some bait on the way and set up.  Plenty of tarpon around and the action started pretty quick.  Barry hooked up and lost a small tarpon.  Then a little later landed a nice 20 lber.  Then Sarah got a big brute, a nice 80 lb fish or so.  This one did not want to give up we chased it and fought it for 50 minutes or so!  We got it boatside for some pictures and release it.  I thought the bite may have died after that.  We set back up and didn’t see much so we moved around.  I did see a couple fish which gave me hope.  We set back up and then soon after Sarah jumped another fish.  Then we hooked another big one of about 80 lbs.  Barry got this one and it came in fairly quick.  After that we were done and mixed up the rest of our day.  We caught a handful of snook, had a few shots at tripletail we missed, and that was about it.  But all in all another great day!  Back at it tomorrow will likely be doing the same routine if my anglers are up for getting up early.  3 for 5

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