Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with Brad and David again today.  We didn’t solely focus on tarpon and decided to mix things up a bit.  Early in the morning we tried to catch some pilchards, small live baits, for some snook and such.  Didn’t have much luck with that so we just went with some artificials.  We were able to catch a handful of snook and some nice trout fishing the beach shorelines.  Was hoping we’d see some tarpon off the beaches, but alas never even saw one!  We ran back and fished some of the channels where I’d been getting them the last few mornings.  Didn’t see a whole lot, but eventually a couple rolled and we got around them and Brad caught a nice 50 lb fish!  That was about all she wrote though, it was about 11:00 and we finished the day catching a few snappers for dinner.  Have these guys again tomorrow for the last day then I’m out of town through the weekend.  Tarpon will likely be on the menu at some point during the day!  1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
@richardstanczyk

Got out with Brad and David today.  We hit the same area as yesterday, had the very start of the incoming tide.  The fish were there, not quite as happy as the last few days though.  We moved a few times and managed to catch a couple though, plus plenty of sharks.  Funny as the sharks were not there at all the last couple days.  Anyways after that we left though another boat told me they did bite a little more later on after the tide got going better.  We caught another tarpon out off the mainland areas where they had been mixed in with all the sharks.  Saw several big groups of fish, and got in front of them and hooked up pretty quick.  After that things settled down and the tide was quitting out there.  We ran out into the gulf to take a peek and found some cobia, one got eaten by a shark but we got one to the boat.  A few nice trout and a pompano as well.  Great day, back at it again with these guys the next two days.  We may try some other things but if we see some tarpon I’m sure we’ll give that a go for a little bit.  3 for 3

P.S. Again we normally don’t lift tarpon out of the water, however this one was under 40 inches so it is allowed.  Though we are careful to support the belly, and not let them flop around on the deck or wipe their slime off too much.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
@richardstanczyk

Got out with David and Stanley today for some tarpon fishing in islamorada.  We left out early and ran into the backcountry.  The winds had kicked up out of the southwest, not honking but a good 10-15 mph.  I was a little worried that might make the fish move around a bit they usually dont like south wind!  We were able to catch some bait on the way and hit the areas where I had found them yesterday.  Luckily they were still there… We had the tide just starting in, and had some action right away.  We jumped the first fish off, actually the hook broke on us oddly that doesn’t happen too often.  After that we proceeded to put on a clinic.  Stanley landed 3 fish, Dave got 1, and he also had another one we got to the leader but unfortunately got tip wrapped and broke off next to the boat… but had the leader so a technical release.  It was game on for a good little 2 hour window.  After that things slowed down a bit, we went and just did some light action fishing and caught some trout and then came home!  Days like today make it look easy but it’s not always like that… makes you appreciate it when it is!  Hopefully the fish will stay put, I heard the other batch of fish had disappeared today with that bad wind direction, so if it goes back east hopefully they’ll come back.  5 for 6

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
@richardstanczyk