3/17/11 HOT action islamorada tarpon fishing and sharks!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished Todd Belinger and his son today for some great florida keys fishing in Islamorada on March 17, 2011!  We left out early around 7:15 right before the sun starting rising.  We stopped in the back where I've been having luck lately near flamingo and caught plenty of trout, ladyfish, jacks, and a few pompano on the last of the falling tide back there.  Put a big rod out while doing so and caught a few sharks there too.  Once the tide died we moved further up the channel and waited for it to come in.  We caught several more sharks there and had one tarpon bite we missed, then hooked about a 60 lber we landed!  After the the weeds start really rolling through so we moved on a little further out towards the gulf of mexico and fished another deep channel.  Plenty of small blacktips in there we probably caught another 6 of those in there, and another larger 80 lb tarpon right off the bat!  Then we hooked a 150 lb hammerhead that we fought for about 30 minutes and got him up for a picture alongside the boat!  The waters back to normal and getting warmer as we get into spring, the tarpon are getting happier and soon it will be full on!  Florida Tarpon Fishing is spectacular here in Islamorada!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903
rick@seethefloridakeys.net

3/14/11 Florida Keys Snook Fishing plus other stuff!

Capt. Jim Willcox fished a full day in the back today and caught this nice snook drifting in a channel in the back.  He has caught a few this week which is a very good sign as they were severely decimated last year during the cold winter.  They also caught this baby permit which is pretty neat looking!  Plus some blacktip sharks and the usual ladyfish, trout, jacks, etc...  Weather is warming up here so islamorada fishing charters should be getting more productive!!!

3/13/11 Florida Keys Tarpon action plus another big sea monster!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk had Lars, Oscar, and Antoine fishing in islamorada today.  All three are swedes who love to fish!  We caught plenty of trout, ladyfish, and jacks to bend the rod early.  Water temps were still pretty chilly in the mid 60s.  Though they wanted to catch some big stuff so we put the shark rods out.  Within 20 minutes we saw a big bust behind the boat and the BG90 bent over and started zinging line - big 130 lb tarpon!  We fought him for about 30 minutes and Lars landed his first tarpon and it was a lunker!  We fished a while longer though the tide started dying so we moved out further on the edge of the gulf.  Not much action there, one shark bite we missed, so I asked the guys what they wanted to do - bend the rod on smaller stuff or go for the big stuff.  They chose the big stuff, so we ran back to a channel where the water temp had warmed up some in the afternoon sun and put 'em out again.   Same rod bent over again and started slowly taking drag.  I could tell by the action it was something else - we fought it for about 20 minutes again and I started hand-lining it up having the feeling that it was another 'mud marlin' and sure enough it was, about 300 lbs!  We got a good look at him and then he went back to the bottom, and cut us off, but at least we saw him!  Well the guys were happy with their decision, we soon headed back after that.  Not bad for a chilly day in early March!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903
rick@seethefloridakeys.net

3/12/11 Cold weather? No problem for these florida keys fish!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished today with his girlfriends brother John Baxter and company down from Tennessee.  They had a late start so instead of running all the way to the cape they fished half way back in the everglades.  Caught plenty of trout, ladyfish, jacks, and snappers, then went and put the big rods out.  Caught a nice lemon shark about 100 lbs or so, and not much else while there.  So they ran out a little further to another gulf spot and put 'em out again, and within a few minutes had this nice hammerhead shark on!  The water was pretty stirred up out there and no mackerels bit, so they ran back on the edge of some banks and caught some nice mangrove snappers and this nice red grouper as well!  Great action for a fairly chilly day in the middle of March!  Soon there will be great florida tarpon fishing again so be ready!

3/10/11 Cold front coming means... great fishing!

Capt. Jim Willcox and Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished a 3/4 day this morning due to the cold front coming today.  The sky turned black and winds were extremely nasty by 12:30 or so.  We had our british group from the UK down and a couple of the guys fancied catching a bonefish, and with the front coming in that was ideal conditions to try some stake up fishing.  Capt. Jim put them on 3 bones this morning, here's a picture of a nice 7 lber!  Part of Capt. Rick's crew wanted to catch a tarpon in a bad way so we ran back into the everglades for that.  Fishing was very good early, caught 1 out of 3 tarpon bites we had, possibly 4, plus a few blacktip sharks and a big nurse shark!  We also caught plenty of trout, ladyfish, jacks while doing so and a few pompano too!