Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Gorgeous day and good fishing with Kemp, Vickie, and Charlie visiting from Texas. We focused on tarpon early and had some good fishing. Had to work at it a little but Kemp and Charlie each caught one, Vickie missed a couple and we jumped off a couple others. But caught some nice sharks in between. The last hour of the day we got into an insane redfish bite! We caught them three at a time, even using just bare jigs with no bait. Wild to see! Kemp lost a big one about a 15 lber that got caught in some structure, but we landed a few nice 6 to 8 lbers plus tons of small guys. Vickie got a couple snook too, and several nice trout. Awesome day, awesome fishing, doesn’t get much better!  2 for 6

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

Back at it today the weather got nice and calm and things were looking spring like again! We tried a spot early for permit for Clive and Keith as that was on their list. No luck with that but we did catch several trout and jack crevelle. After that we went looking for tarpon. I was off the last couple days but after a cold front I know I had heard they’d slowed down a little bit. But today the water temps were back in the mid 70s and they were around. We had to work at it a bit but eventually they started firing for us. Keith jumped one nice fish and then we caught a few sharks. After another move, Clive hooked up and caught a nice 50 lber. We then found a hungry pack, and the boys hooked a double header of 100+ lb fish! We were stuck in between two big ones heading different directions, we had to chase one for a while down to the wind on leader, then go back after the other one as he had as down to our last 50 or so feet of line! We got back closer to that one, but unfortunately ended up pulling the hook on the other fish. So no double header picture! But we properly landed the other fish and got some pictures. After that the boys were whooped, so we focused on smaller stuff. Caught a few triple tails afterwards. We decided to look for some permit again the last hour but didnt see much out in the gulf. We did find a bunch of spanish mackerels though and had plenty of fun with them just throwing bare jigs, with some more jacks mixed in too. Also ran over a big ball of schooled up tarpon which was cool to see, I hoped it was our school of permit from a distance but oh well awesome to see anyways. We then made our way back to Islamorada. Back at it tomorrow looks like it’ll be another nice calm day.  3 for 4

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

Little tough conditions today with Bob and Mark. Stiff northwest wind with another weak cold front. Also a weird weak tide that stayed a foot and a half above 0. We tried for some reds early on where we found them yesterday, but a total mud hole today with the west wind. So we then looked for tarpon. Caught slack tide and it took a while to get moving , but we did see some fish. Caught a few sharks, and after an hour or so and almost calling it quits, we hooked a nice 60 lb tarpon that we landed. As the tide moved more it got pretty rough and I figured we’d had our lucky break so we opted to try some other stuff. Ended up doing a lot of running around, as most spots I stopped the water seemed too high for the low water areas, and not high enough for the high water areas. Plus a lot of dirty mixed up water with the west wind. We did hook a very nice snook in one spot that unfortunately cut us off on a tree branch. Found a couple small reds in another spot. Finally on the way home we got on to a decent bite and caught about a dozen reds, six small snook, a few trout and snappers and Jack’s. Anyways had to work hard at it today but it paid off, but makes you appreciate the days when it is easy! We cancelled tomorrow and I’ll be up in Miami for the weekend, back at it Sunday.  1 for 1

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