Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Well the early islamorada tarpon fishing season continues.  I had a few days off and the last couple trips were non-tarpon fishing trips.  Today in the morning the wind was north I was not really excited about that wind direction for a tarpon trip.  My anglers wanted to target big stuff tarpon included.  We ran into the backcountry looking for bait.  Mullet were very difficult as the wind died when we got to an area with some mullet around.  When it is slick calm, it is tough as the mullet are very spooky and the boat doesn’t move much if the tide is weak.  After an hour we had about half a dozen mullet and a couple big ladyfish.  We went fishing with what we had and first bait in the water we hooked a nice 80 lb tarpon that we landed.  After that a large blacktip, and a few smaller blacktips, and a big 150 lb lemon shark.  Caught some ladyfish in a ditch nearby and tried again on the last of the incoming tide and the little blacktip sharks at us alive.  Any day you catch a tarpon is a good day though, we have some colder weather coming so it may shut the tarpon down for a few days but hopefully won’t drive them away.  If your thinking of booking a spring tarpon fishing in the florida keys trip let me know, the rest of my february is already booked up and only a few days left open in march!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

february islamorada tarpon

Well had the same crew from yesterday, different anglers though.  They wanted to get some tarpon too.  We saved our mullets on ice from the previous day and went into the backcountry.  Hit some different grounds this time and it paid off.  The grassy weed I was worried about wasn’t too bad, we saw fish rolling as soon as we got there.  Tide was slack so not a lot of action to start.  But after an hour we hooked a nice tarpon which we chased and caught.  The blacktips started getting our baits, though not as bad as the other day at least.  Eventually we hooked into another tarpon too which we chased and jumped off boatside, which was very exciting!  More sharks after that and the boys wanted to head in early as they had a late night.  Fishing them again tomorrow maybe we will do something else, or maybe we will look for the big boys again – have to wait and see!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Well gave ’em a break yesterday but we tarpon fished again today.  We loaded up on mullet and fished in the backcountry.  First couple baits in the water after 10 minutes we had a nice 90 lb fish hooked up which we fought and brought to the boat though he jumped off on the leader.  The fish lately are not cooperating well for boatside pictures!!  After that the blacktip sharks were horrendous again we caught over a dozen plus many more cut us off.  Tried a couple other areas and no luck, lots of grass/weed with the south wind.  Came back around town near channel 2 in islamorada and the current was ripping and lots of sargasm weed being blowin in with the south wind.  We fished for a bit, caught a big nurse shark, but no signs of tarpon so we came in early on a 3/4 day.  But still lots of fun, good action with sharks, and a big tarpon – beats where these guys came from where it was -13 degrees!!!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk