Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out after ’em today with Mark and his son Adam.  They fished offshore yesterday with my brother and adam got a couple sails, big amberjacks, and other things.  Today they wanted tarpon.  We started off around town and I had some leftover live baits.  We had the last trickle of incoming tide.  We had a tarpon up busting the baits but didn’t eat, and after the the tide quit so we ran into the backcountry.  Caught a few more mullet on the way.  In the channels back there we had some shark action and soon hooked and landed a nice 50 lb tarpon.  After that a few more sharks.  I then made a move and tried another channel.  We saw a good group of fish rolling around and I thought for sure we’d get eaten up.  We had one fish flash a live mullet and grab and spit it out real quick.  After that they disappeared.  We tried another area nearby that and hooked a big blacktip shark that we broke off eventually after he chewed through the leader.  At the end of the day we ran back towards home in Islamorada and tried the local channels.  We caught the start of the incoming tide and after 30 minutes we hooked a big 100 lb fish!  What a battle he greyhounded and ran hard to start the fight I thought we were gonna lose him in another boats anchor line but he avoided it.  Then he almost got ran over by a big boat in the channel.  Have to love spring break!  Anyways Adam did well and eventually subdued the fish and we got some good boatside pictures.   A great way to end the day with a big 100 lb tarpon on a beautiful spring afternoon in the Florida Keys.  At it again tomorrow.  2 for 2

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Well I’m exhausted just fished a full day and a night trip which I am not doing a lot of this year.  Though I will do them on occasion when conditions are good short notice.  Anyways today was good fishing we caught a nice tarpon early on live bait in local islamorada.  Then we ran into the backcountry and did some light tackle jigging.  In the afternoon we found the tarpon in the backcountry channels and caught 2 more in the last hour.  Great day with 3 tarpon!  This evening fishing was tough I caught some live bait in between trips and we went back out.  We had a lame tide for close to 2 hours, very slow to switch and very weak starting and stopping.  Anyways I fished 3 different areas and saw fish in all places but not much for a response.  Didn’t see another boat hook up the entire night.  But finally in the last 20 minutes we had a good cheap shot and about 10 minutes later we hooked and caught a nice 50 lb fish to end the night.  Great day!  3 for 3 and 1 for 1

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

3/29/16 – Tarpon fished today we ran into the backcountry to start and had a load of bait already from the afternoon before.  We saw plenty of fish back there however they were not cooperating. We moved around a few times with fish rolling all over but they just wouldn’t bite.  The red grass got very bad too and made it tough to fish by the end of it.  We did catch a few sharks and a cobia.  Mid day we came back around town to finish up and we did have some tarpon action we did hook a fish however he jumped off right away.  Then we had some cheap shots of tarpon busting the mullet or flashing them but not eating.  We found another group at the end of the day though same thing they were just flashing or busting and wouldn’t eat.  0 for 1

3/30/16 – Today we tarpon fished and did some rod bending mid day.  In the morning fishing was good we found some fish in the bay channels and we had good activity in the morning for the 1st hour.  We had 3 solid eats though unfortunately the fish didn’t stay on.  One bite we had the fish on for a good 30 seconds but he jumped off.  Unfortunately my angler who missed two fish had been leaving the rod in the rod holder not following direction and unfortunately paid the price.  A tarpon bite comes very fast and the couple seconds it takes you to pick a rod up out of the holder and get situated sometimes is too long before the fish is gone.  Different types of baits call for different approaches but for live mullet fishing you always want to hold the rod, yes sometimes it can get boring and frustrating but the nature of fishing as soon as you put the rod down that bite is going to come!  We caught some trout, ladyfish, and other assorted fish mid day, and then tried the tarpon again in the afternoon and had one cheap shot around the bridge, but that was all she wrote.  Hopefully my luck turns around it’s been a very tough March – I’m ready for April!  0 for 3

Capt. Rick Stanczyk