Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Winds kicked up today about 25 mph out of the southeast so it was rough!  My guys booked me last minute as I had the day scheduled off but decided to fish the morning if someone wanted to go.  We tried locally around the bridges and didn’t have much luck, it was tough fishing with the kicking wind, weed, etc…  We ended up fishing close to home the last hour and a half, and within 20 minutes we hooked a nice 100 lb tarpon!  It ended up taking the rest of the morning to catch, we got him on the leader several times but he wouldn’t cooperate for a boatside picture, so we ended up popping him off as we were trying to get him to roll over.  Anyways the guys were happy to land one they had fished down at bahia honda the night before and hooked 6 (it’s supposedly going off down there right now!) but they didn’t get any to the boat as most got in the bridge, jumped off, and one even got eaten by a shark!  Unfortunately we didn’t get the good pics of this one, but they were happy to have officially caught one.  Full day tomorrow, may head down to the big bridge at long key as it’s been good fishing down there though I really don’t like dealing with the 50+ boats there but with as windy as it is, might be the best option.  1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Fished way out back again today since my crew wanted a little variety of ‘big stuff.’  We caught plenty of sharks including blacktips, sharpnoses, lemon, and even a big ‘sawfish’ which was cool!  We ended up only having one tarpon bite though we caught it thankfully.  It was windy and out of the south not the nicest conditions back there but not too bad for my big old boat.  Just got booked for a half day tomorrow, was gonna take the day off but figured i’d just fish the morning.  Supposedly there has been a good bite closer down to marathon around some of the bigger bridges, but dont think we’ll have the right tidal window for that with our time frame.  Also there’s been about 50 boats down there and I imagine on the weekend it’ll be even more…  So likely will fish locally hopefully there will be a few hungry ones!  1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got out with Rob and his buddy Roger for a days fishing.  We ventured out into the backcountry to get away from the crowds since the winds weren’t too bad, 10-15 out of the south east and it got nicer as the day went on.  We had good action with sharks and after a couple moves got on to a little tarpon bite.  We ended up not having good luck keeping them on the hook, we jumped 3 of them off!  The tide started to die around 10:15 and I was thinking hope might be lost but we stuck it out a little longer and roger hooked one, not huge but a nice 35 lber, that we landed.  Good way to finish!  After that we took some crocodile and bird photos, and tried a couple other stops back there and locally for tarpon but not much else going on in the afternoon.  Glad to have gotten another tarpon!  Tomorrow I’ll be venturing out back again I think, being the weekend the bridges are just too crowded!  1 for 4

Capt. Rick Stanczyk