Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with Shannon and Derek today for day 1 of 3 for tarpon.  We found fish where we found them yesterday morning, but today they weren’t catchable for us.  The sharks were horrendous and we couldn’t keep a bait out more then 10 seconds.  We moved around a few times but to no avail.  We looked in some other areas, we did find a handful of fish in a channel.  Again we jumped around 3 times trying to line up on ones we saw rolling but no bites.  I think it may of been the same couple fish we saw didn’t seem like a big group.  We checked another channel and just gave it a look and didn’t see anything.  I offered to switch it up not really feeling the tarpon thing today but the boys wanted to go all in for the tarpon.  We ran and tried another channel – impossible to fish because seaweed was so bad.  We ran way up inside and fished, more sharks.  Looked in another area and never saw anything, and then tried near home for the last 45 minutes.  Did see one fish roll and had one swim under us off of the flat, but no bites.  I’m ready for the tarpon fishing to get good again… this has been one of the longest slow stretches I’ve seen since I’ve been guiding.  Hope it gets better soon!  There have been a few being caught but sounds like more near dark or super early morning.  With a few more days of west wind I don’t have very high hopes until we have some light easterly wind direction that fish like.  0 for 0

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

Got out with Graham and his dad Paul today for the last of their 3 days.  We headed out early and found some fish a little closer to where we were yesterday which was nice.  But they weren’t biting super great though a little better than yesterday.  Unfortunately we had a lot of catfish and sharks to deal with too.  But we did manage three bites and got one fish to the leader before he jumped off for a technical catch.  After 9:00 or so the tarpon seemed to thin out though we did keep seeing a handful.  We looked around in several other areas while waiting on the tide to change, and didn’t see any elsewhere.  Hopefully more show up soon but at least it was good to see a good number this AM and glad to have gotten one.  We did catch several big lemon sharks, a big bull shark, a couple monster blacktips, and several smaller sharks as well so there was steady action all day long.  Back at it tomorrow the winds look to be light so will probably try the same routine again.  Then we have some west wind coming this week don’t think that will help what has already been a little bit of a tough time.  1 for 3

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

5/31/18 – Got out with Allen and Paul today for the 1st of 3 days trip.  We gave tarpon a try early on, had one boil on a live bait and a pick up on another bait but dropped it quickly.  But that was it.  We decided to mix things up for the rest of the day and had good action with snapper, trout, and mackerel, and caught some sharks later in the day and finished up with a nice sawfish!  0 for 1

6/1/18 – Had Allen and Graham today of the same group though the guys mixed up the crew some today.  We ran deep into the glades and did get a tarpon early on.  We saw quite a few fish and I thought we’d get a few more bites, but they were pretty finicky!  But glad to be back on the board getting one.  We caught  a variety of sharks as well, and then on the way home we saw a few tarpon in one of the channels in the backcountry which was good to see.  Hopefully some more will be moving in.  We have several days of west wind coming up after tomorrow so that may make the fishing a little screwy again.  1 for 1

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