Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with Steve and Tim down from NY today for some tarpon fishing.  We headed out early and caught bait on the way.  Tarpon were right where we left them yesterday and we had a little northeasterly breeze this morning so I figured they might like that a little better then flat calm.  We had just an absolutely epic day!  They bit very well we never moved all day and had very good fishing with mostly big tarpon and some sharks.  We got one that was close to 130 or so very nice fish!  We also landed double header 100 lb tarpon which was exciting we had to chase them, unfortunately one broke off at the boat before we could get the double header picture but oh well that’s tough to do especially with 2 fish that big!  Had nice incoming tide all morning and the fishing just doesn’t get any better than that.  Hopefully those tarpon will stick around a few more days, then I’m out of town Saturday to Tuesday to watch the eclipse and visit some relatives.  The fishing may stay good all through August who knows, like I always say summer time and early fall are some of my favorite times of years to tarpon fish just because you usually have the good conditions and not near as much pressure on the fish.  6 for 8

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
@richardstanczyk

Got out with Dan Styf today he fished with me a few years ago and we had caught some nice tarpon in the summer.  Today it was pretty slick calm early and then a nice light easterly breeze later on.  We caught bait and saw tarpon rolling out in the open water as soon as we got in the area I wanted to fish, we had to jump around a few times, but eventually got in front of some hungry fish.  We had good incoming tide for a while and we ended up getting four nice tarpon, all big ones in the 65-100 lb range!  One never jumped which was cool I thought for sure it was a big blacktip shark, and another one we had to fight for a good 30 minutes he dragged us for quite a ways.  Also one fish we didn’t get to the hand, but got him on the windon leader next to the boat and he took off and spit the hook on another jump but got our technical catch anyways!  Just an epic morning you can’t ask for much more than that…  We also caught some blacktips and a big lemon shark.  After that we tried off the mainland and caught the start of the falling tide.  Didn’t see much for tarpon our there though we caught some little sharks.  We got a nice triple tail that floated by, and then spent the rest of our time looking for them.  We had several shots and hooked one more but he got off near the boat.  Wow what a day just everything Dan had asked for.  I’m fishing the next few days then out of town Saturday, I’ll be back on the 23rd and have some availability from then on to the end of the month.  The tarpon bite has been strong and can remain that way through October sometimes.  4 for 4

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
@richardstanczyk

Got out with Chad and Michelle today for a 3/4 day after some tarpon.  Had very light southerly winds, not my favorite direction but it wasn’t howling so all was good.  We caught bait on the way there and hit some channels.  Didn’t see much activity early, we sat for a bit in one spot with no action.  Eventually did see a tarpon roll and we scooted over there, and got a shark bite soon after and then Chad had a tarpon bite that was missed unfortunately.  A buddy of mine had pulled up in the area where we were before, and within a few minutes he actually hooked double header tarpon!  We slid back over there nearby and he took off to chase one of the fish because it was big.  I was about to give up and after 25 minutes or so, Michelle hooked a nice 60 lber that we landed.  Didn’t get any pictures myself since we were having to do battle and it was a wily fish going under the boat a few times.  We got it on the leader but as soon as Michelle took some wraps to go for pictures, it kicked it’s tail and snapped the leader.  Oh well but a good release.  We then headed out towards the mainland to try for the last hour.  I didn’t see a whole lot out there but did see a little bit of busting and a possible fish jumping, we set up and caught a bunch of blacktip sharks but no tarpon bite.  I then moved in near shore where I had good action a few days ago, we didn’t see much but after 20 minutes there we jumped another tarpon.   Smaller guy that didn’t want to stay on the hook.  After that unfortunately it was time to go.  Was glad that we got one, wish the others had stayed on the hook but that’s fishing.  I’m booked the next few days and will be out there after them, going out of town this weekend and then will be back at it the following Wednesday.  I have good availability near the end of the month and definitely in September if anyone is looking to go.  We catch tarpon all the way through October.  1 for 3

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
@richardstanczyk