Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with Kiff and Alan today for a full day trip.  Tarpon was on the list so we gave it a go.  We happened to see some tarpon on our way into the backcountry, and stopped and set up on them.  Jumped one right away and then got a few sharks.  We had several moving by us for about 20 minutes, it looked good…  But nothing happened.  We were about to leave when we hooked a nurse shark, and then after we landed him the other rod went off and Kiff hooked a nice 70 lb tarpon!  We landed that one and got some pictures, mission accomplished!  After that we jumped around trying a few other areas in there but seemed like it was over.  We finished the day doing other stuff, struggled a little to get on a good bite but we put a good catch together overall with about 16 redfish, a few snook, some trout, a tripletail, and a few other odds and ends.  1 for 2

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with Carl and his wife today visiting from across the pond!  We decided to go the mixed bag route again, as I told them tarpon had been a little more hit and miss lately so its been a better bet often going in the everglades where there are several other options nearby.  We tried tarpon early, saw a handful but not bites.  Did get a few big nurse sharks though.  After that we moved and found a group of tarpon out in the middle of nowhere.  They weren’t showing much but with some good old school captain knowledge, I saw the signs I was looking for.  We got in a big pack of them and caught several sharks right away, but after that we finally hooked up a nice 25 lb tarpon that we landed.  We jumped one more too and then they were gone!  We decided to try some wrecks a little further out in the gulf.  It was good we got a big snook, a cobia, big jack crevelle, and missed a few other fish.  We went inshore and smacked up a bunch of redfish and a small snook after that.  Then hit the wrecks again on the tide change and caught a nice permit and 3 more cobia!  Banner day!  1 for 2

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out today with Kevin and Suzanne visiting from Texas.  They were up for doing more of a mixed bag day, so we weren’t all in on tarpon.  But we did give it a shot for part of the day.  Tried early first thing where we had caught a few fish last week.  There were a handful there today, but not what I saw the last time I was there.  We did get a few fish rolling near our baits, but no takes.  After 45 minutes or so, we decided to move on.  Looked elsewhere and saw a handful of fish but not much so we went and did other stuff.  Redfish fishing was pretty good and we caught a good handful of nice snook as well.  Tried again before leaving for some tarpon in another area.  Saw quite a few little guys, but no action out of ’em.  Sounds like the local bridge fishing has been pretty hit or miss, so I’ve often been opting to still going in the backcountry as there many other options back there if the tarpon don’t cooperate.  But the wind should be calming slightly the next several days and maybe things will pick up again.  0 for 0

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing