Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out for a full day again with the Kurt Butcher group, same group of guys from yesterday but different anglers for me today.  I had Jay and Dustin out for the day.  It was Jay’s dream to catch a tarpon and I told him we’d have a decent shot today being as there had been fish around and we had decent conditions.  The winds had kicked up somewhat from yesterday but not blowing like crazy, a steady 15 mph or so.  We caught bait early to start the day but had some weather in the backcountry so we didn’t run back there right away.  We fished locally for little stuff and had good action with that.  We looked around the bridges for tarpon but didn’t see a whole lot of activity.  The rains cleared so we ran out back.  I fished a different channel I hadn’t fished yet this year, though my buddy said there had been some good tarpon there.  Well we had some company a couple other boats were there, but no matter.  We found fish right away and set up… No bites early on, a few sharks including a big bull, but could see fish rolling and swimming by.  The tide was starting to slack up and soon started to come in.  We moved around a bit and soon after caught a cobia.  Then we caught a big sting ray.  We hooked what I thought was another ray later on, and at the same time Jay put his rod down and had a tarpon grab his bait real quick but spit the hook!  Funny you can fish for hours like that and as soon as you set the rod down, that is when that tarpon comes!  Anyways was a little bummed about that, but then all of a sudden dustins ray jumped and turned out to really be a tarpon that just wasn’t moving or fighting much!  That quickly turned my attitude around and we caught the fish and got some good pics.  Later on Jay was rewarded with a tarpon of his own too a nice 90 lber that we fought for a good 45 minutes.  He didn’t want to cooperate for pictures though we finally turned him and had him laid out but unfortunately he broke off while Jay had the leader wrapped around his hands.  But Dustin got some good video for him and they both were stuper stoked to each catch a tarpon and other things.  Back at it tomorrow looks like the winds are suppose to kick up more, and Tuesday it’s really going to blow.  Will likely make fishing a little tough but hopefully we can find something that wants to feed.  2 for 3

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

Got out with Butch and Cody today for a full day of fishing.  Part of a larger group that had several boats out of Bud n Marys.  We tarpon fished most of the day and they were game with that – anything beats being at work!  We caught some fresh mullet and headed out to the fishing grounds.  We tried where we fished the last few days and there were fish there.  We had a bite within 20 seconds of putting our first bait out, a big 100 lber for Cody!  Good fight and we had her on the leader several times but snapped off before we could get the boat side picture.  I thought the tarpon might be chewing a little bit seeing as how quickly we got a bite, but we fished hard for the next hour or two and never had another tarpon bite there.  We did get a nice bull shark for Butch though.  The tide started to die so we decided to run further back where I hadn’t been in a while though had seen some tarpon a couple weeks ago the last flat clam day we had.  We didn’t see much at first, and anchored randomly and caught a big lemon shark and a sting ray.  I was about to give up on the area, but decided to take a lap around and look.  We saw one little bust that I thought may be a tarpon and decided to fish the area.  It was near where we saw the tarpon a couple weeks ago, and I saw something float by with its fins up high.  We put a live bait out and sure enough a tarpon grabbed it!  We missed him but then caught one on our other rod, a nice 65 lber.  We moved around a bit, and then Butch had another bite he missed, and then 30 seconds or so before I was about to say reel ’em up, Butch hooked and landed a 40 lber!  Anyways a great day 3 tarpon in February is pretty good fishing!  Looks like the winds are going to kick up again so might slow the bite down a little more.  But I’ve already caught more fish this February then I have in any other February in the last several years.  May be a very early start to our season!  3 for 5

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

Got out for a 3/4 day with John, Michelle, and Phil.  Tarpon was on the agenda though they also wanted to do a little ‘action fishing’ too.  We did the mackerels early to start and had good luck with that.  We found some tarpon where they had been previously.  Today it was very flat calm though and looked to be a good slug of fish around.  We had the last of the falling tide though it was very weak and died early on us.  We sat for close to an hour and had a shark bite, then finally had something pick up our bait and swim it up under the boat.  I had Phil real on it and a nice tarpon came up jumping off our bow!  We had to quickly get the line out from under the boat and around the trolling motor, but managed to do it without losing the fish!  We chased him around a little bit and landed him!  Nice 85 lb fish though we didn’t get good boat side pics as he broke on the leader while Phil had him wrapped on the gloves.  We set back up and now the tide was coming in and moving pretty good.  We continued to see fish around us but they just weren’t super active feeding.  We had another shark bite us off and then we made a move.  We hooked another big lemon shark and while fighting that, Michelle hooked a smaller 50 lb tarpon!  We fought both for a bit and got the wind-on leader on the tarpon to the rod tip, but he jumped and threw the hook before we could really get him boat side.  Oh well a technical catch anyways.  We got the shark to the boat though.  After that it was about time to head on home, but a great day with variety and a couple tarpon!  I think I’ll be back at it tomorrow looks like we will have good weather for a few days, hopefully they’ll start perking up even more for us!  2 for 2

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