Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Great day with Bernie and Lonny down from Montana. Tarpon was on the agenda and I told the boys we had pretty good fishing yesterday so it looked promising. We headed out early and checked a few spots. Didn’t see a whole lot where we had seen some fish yesterday, so we kept moving. Found the big school we were after and it was game on. Missed quite a few bites, fish were really blowing the bait out as soon as they grabbed it. But we stuck a few, Bernie caught a big 120 lber or so, and then later on close to a 100 lber. Lonny got a couple fish as well, a 75 lber and the another that was close to that size as well. Only got one fish to cooperate for boatside pictures, but that’s how they are sometimes fighters until the end. But plenty more action, including missing a double header. Lots of sharks to keep us busy as well. March fishing had been incredible, shaping up to be one of my strongest Marches ever. Back at it tomorrow!  4 for 10

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

Fantastic day with Kelly, Eric, and Adam. The boys were visiting down from Minnesota. Kelly had wanted to fish with me for a while but I’d always been busy, but today was our day. Tarpon was on the list. Things had warmed up from a few days ago, I hadn’t fished the last couple of days but overall sounded like things rebounded quickly from the drastic weather change. We found tarpon in multiple areas and caught fish in each of them. Eric and Adam each landed a couple, not bad for their first trip tarpon fishing! Kelly had a shot but we missed the bite, but he kept busy with sharks. We had a nice Cobia swim up while fishing, and got a bite out or him but missed the hookup, and tried to chase him down but he sunk out on us. After that the boys wanted to try for some snook. We gave it a go, little bit of an onshore breeze but not too bad. I tried a spot we had luck at last week, and today we were rewarded again! Eric caught a couple nice ones, Adam got one too, but Kelly’s got away unfortunately we pulled the hook. But all the fish weren’t in the 34 inch range very nice snook. Also a redfish and quite a few trout. Just a fantastic day, should continue to be a good week of fishing. Fishing in Islamorada continues to be really good!  4 for 5

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

Another day on 🔥 🔥 🔥 for Curtis, Mike, and Connie. They wanted tarpon and we were suppose to fish tomorrow, but with an impending cold front tonight I thought it might be tough duty. Luckily I had today open and we switched days, as today was nice and calm, ideal tarpon condition. We found some fish early and Connie and Mike each caught a nice one. Connie’s was about an 85 lber, and Mike’s was a good 140… Big fat girthy fish! After that we kept moving and found some more tarpon on the incoming tide. Curtis was up and we didn’t get anything on the first stop, but after a move we got lined up right and within 5 minutes he hooked a slob 175 lber! He fought her well and we got her to the boat within 20 minutes. Just a beast of a fish my biggest yet this year. We caught a few tripletails after that. Then Curtis asked about snook. I said we could give it a try I had a few live shrimp. To be honest I thought we may get lucky and catch a little one or too, but we ended up finding a couple hoss fish! He bagged two one 33 incher and one 34, a good 14 and 15 lbs or so. What a way to end the day! Headed on home after that. Winds are gonna kick tonight and it’s suppose to drop to 60 the next couple nights. I’m off tomorrow and then suppose to fish Thursday, and then a couple more off days. Rarely does it work out so perfectly that I avoid the bad condition days normally my days off I wanna be out there! Anyways, might be slow fishing in the backcountry the next couple days definitely a time to listen to your guides recommendation… but hopefully after the weekend things will warm back up and maybe the tarpon will be happier again.  3 for 3

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