Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out for an early morning and an evening trip today.  The wind was howling this morning 20 out of the northwest and it was cold for May… in the high 60s I’d say.  Very chilly on the water!  Anyways we had a ripping falling tide with the wind behind it so our drifts were very short.  We tried the local channels first and not much happening there.  So I ran down to the bigger bridges and we drifted.  Not much either on the first 3 drifts and I was a little worried.  But we finally hooked a fish at about 6:15 and landed him in 20 minutes or so.  A nice 90 lber for Jason.  After that we didn’t get much more action the tide changed quickly and we saw a few fish roll at sunrise but no more bites.  I heard it was very tough fishing during the day.  1 for 1

Winds laid down this evening it was maybe 10 mph out of the northwest and slicked off flat calm by 6:30.  Early we drifted where we were this morning saw a handful of fish but no bites.  We anchored a while and fished our mullets and had a fish roll nearby but still no love.  We fished the channels near home to end it and saw a bunch of fish rolling and waited it out.  Sometimes when it slicks off they can be tough to get to bite.  Finally around sunset a tarpon ate our crab and we caught him.  Another fish close to 90 lbs for Don.  Great way to end the night, this year especially it’s always good to catch one.  Going early again tomorrow I think conditions will be a little better if it stays calm, there were  a lot of fish in the local channels from what I heard from the rest of the fleet, so will try that first.  1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got out today again for a full day.  We tarpon fished early and tried a few channels and around some of the bridges.  Chilly with a light north breeze, unusual weather for May.  Anyways the weed was horrendous at the bridges, tough to fish the live baits.  There was also a tournament going on so one of them was covered in boats.  We didn’t have much luck in the morning, so we went and caught our nice mangrove snappers.  Then in the afternoon tried again we saw some rolling fish in one of the channels but no response.  Then finally ended up getting one on a dead bait in another spot after we fished for a while and saw one roll and got in front of him.  Anyways glad to have gotten another one, big 100 lb fish!  1 for 1

We fished a 3/4 day today and a mixed bag was the objective.  We did catch a few fresh live mullets first thing this AM so we decided to give tarpon some time.  Early morning we fished around the bridges but had no luck for the first hour.  We did have a late cold front hit us last night, didn’t get very cold but down in the 70s and suppose to get in the high 60s the next couple nights – which is highly unusual for May!   Winds were 20 mph out of the northwest.  Tough to say what effect it will have on the fishing.  Anyways after that we caught some big jumbo mangrove snappers around the island which was very fun, and then gave the tarpon a try the last hour again.  We got lucky and hooked a big 100 lb fish that battled for a while and we chased out through the channels to the ocean side and finally landed.  While fighting him I noticed several purple swimming crabs flushing out with the tide, a very good sign as we use to have the crabs decades ago every summer and it was a quality food source for tarpon, permit, and other fish.  Then they disappeared for many years until the summer after the ‘freeze’ of 2010 where they showed up for a month and we had really good fishing.  Anyways not sure if it’s from the late cold weather or perhaps some of the water quality issues to our north, but was cool to see them again.  1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk