Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with Dan, Mike, and Jay for a full day of backcountry fishing in Islamorada in April.  Dan’s fished with me several times.  He likes tarpon but also likes to mix it up with sharks and some smaller fish, so that gave us our answer of where to fish.  The backcountry provides much more flexibility with those things.  We tried tarpon to start and I knew some sharks would be mixed in.  We found some fish but they were just not happy at all.  We moved several times and fished very hard going through a lot of bait.  I tried 3 different channels, moving several times in each one, but all we got were blacktips sharks and a few nurse sharks.  We definitely had some tarpon around us in every spot, not tons of fish but a good handful which we could see visually and on the sonar.  I was very surprised to not even get a bite but all I can figure is the full moon may have gotten us, though it could’ve also been the crazy winds which were starting to build and will be blowing all this week.  While you cannot predict many conditional factors far in advance the full moon is always one that sometimes throws a monkey wrench into the best laid plans.  I did hear some fish bit locally but back there it was just not happening.  Anyways we did a little bit of light rod fishing after that and caught some trout.  Then tried tarpon again for the last hour, again had a handful of fish around us in one of those areas too but no love.  We did get a nice hammerhead which was a good surprise to finish.  Anyways tough day I was expecting to catch a few but tarpon can always keep you humble.  I have a big group trip this week for the next four days, so we will likely be doing some tarpon but mixing it up a bit too.  Winds will be kicking so it may be a little tougher, last year these guys had flat calm dream days of fishing.  0 for 0

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

Had Tony, Zack, and Andre out for day two today.  Yesterday they all marked tarpon off their list so pressure was off today.  I figured we’d mix it up a bit and caught some pilchards to start the day.  We tried some snook areas first and found a few good fish in one spot, and then mostly jack crevelles in the rest.  But Andre got a nice 10 lb snook though!  We then spent some time catching some mullet which was work but we got what we needed.  We checked some areas for tarpon since it was flat calm and found a load of them!  We had to move around but got on a hot bite, we ended up hooking two double headers and a few others too!  Unfortunately they were smaller sized fish and were coming unbuttoned easily, but we did manage to land two at least.  After that the wind kicked up and the tarpon seemed to disappear, so we tried a few more spots for snook on the way home.  Not much luck but we did get a nice big mangrove snapper and another jack.  Anyways great day and I’ll be back at it tomorrow.  Found a big school of mullet this afternoon so I was able to load up on bait.  Looks like the winds will start cranking unfortunately, but hopefully the tarpon will stay somewhat happy!  2 for 6

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

Got out with Tony and his son Zack and friend Andre for a day of tarpon fishing.  The boys were down from NJ and Andre had never caught a tarpon so they were hoping for him to get one.  We had a bit of weather out in the bay early so we ran a different route getting out.  Not much for bait around luckily I had some stashed away from a few days ago that was still in good shape.  We looked around several areas I hadn’t fished much lately and didn’t see a whole lot for tarpon activity to start.  Though after a few looks we came across one area with a good slug of fish!  We set up and got Andre hooked up pretty quickly with a nice 50 lb tarpon!  The winds kicked up after that and it howled out of the northwest.  The tarpon seemed to scatter as we didn’t get another bite there.  We moved around a tried another area nearby, saw a couple fish but no bite though Zack got a blacktip shark.  We looked in a few other areas and didn’t see much, and then we waited for the tide to start in as we looked more.  Eventually came across another school of good fish, as soon as we got lined up again we got bit straight away and Tony got a nice 80 lb tarpon!  These fish stuck around and we then got Zack a smaller guy about a 35 lb tarpon.  A few more sharks and then we were out of bait!  We looked around on the way home for bait since the guys have me again tomorrow, caught a little bit in some shallow muds but they weren’t really easy.  Looked around several bridges and channels near home but not much at all there plus busy weekend on a saturday.  Anyways I’ll be looking for some bait in the AM, but since these guys all caught tarpon today the pressure is off so we may mix it up with some other stuff tomorrow too!  3 for 3

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