Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Well did a bit more tarpon fishing today around islamorada.  We fished down near channel 2 bridge tarpon fishing.  In the morning we fished the patches out front for dinner.  Then near mid day we looked for mullet muds which were plentiful just a few miles back in the bay.  We drifted in and in a few throws had a couple dozen mullet.  Perfect bait for tarpon.  We set up with the trolling motor near where we were seeing rolling fish.  Never had a strike on the live baits, but jumped one off on the dead bottom bait.  We were patient and the tide nearly quit, we moved a little bit further over where we had seen a fish roll last.  All of a sudden a 130 lb tarpon goes airborne and we have her on!  Tough fish we fought for over an hour, took us through the bridge and in between multiple pilings.  Almost cut us off and did frey the wind on leader pretty bad on barnacles.  But we got the technical release and the fish boatside for just a few seconds before the leader finally broke.  A true battle with the silver king!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Well I had my first official tarpon trip of the year – success!  We caught a couple nice size tarpons in the backcountry this morning.  I caught plenty of mullet yesterday and we had to hit a few spots but find a few hungry ones.  We did see tarpon in most the channels we fished, but they were not really active or feeding well.  The water temp was still in the low 70s, a little on the chilly side but fish are definitely starting to show up.  Plenty were spotted in the middle of the bay as well which means our local channels and bridges should load up with fish too.  We did some scouting last night right nearby the marina and we did not have any luck, and did not see much for fish rolling either.  I’ve heard there have been some further down by the bigger bridges.  If the weather stays nice and warm like it is, you can expect to have shots at catching tarpon this time of year.  If your looking to do some tarpon fishing, give me a call or shoot me an email.  Early season fishing can be very good!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Haven’t posted in a while and that is because it is winter time now and we are not doing much tarpon fishing.  Though we did happen to catch a baby tarpon today so figured I’d mention it!  We were fishing for snook around the flamingo area casting pilchards, which the snook fishing has been very good for the most part.  Occasional redfish mixed in too.  Anyhow around one of the island moats we landed a small 10 lb baby tarpon.  I had been seeing a handful while ‘fun fishing’ deeper in the everglades in some of the creeks and such, though I am usually just fishing for snook and redfish back there when I’m out myelf for fun, so I don’t really mess with them.  Anyways it is possible to catch them when the weather is warm in the winter – I usually recommend fishing for other fish with the idea that if we see some around we may give it a try.  The normal december everglades fishery is snook, redfish, black drum, sheepshead, trout, and a few other fish.  Also the gulf fishing for mackerel, cobia, goliath grouper, can tripletail can be good when calm!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk