4/11/11 Big day backcountry fishing tarpon!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk had a wonderful day in the islamorada backcountry fishing along with several other guides as well!  He fished Roger Barry and his son James from the U.K.  Roger fished with his father Richard Stanczyk almost 20 years ago for tarpon down here and loved fishing with him because Richard was always sharing his knowledge of fishing with him!  Well today was a treat for them, we caught and released two tarpon up to 60 lbs on the spinning rods which was a lot of fun!  Roger also caught this giant 400 lb goliath grouper off a bottom bait which was an unusual catch and quite amazing!  James also caught a large bottom dweller that was almost 250 lbs all by himself.  We also caught a small blacktip.  Capt. Jim Willcox was fishing next to us and went 2 for 4 on the tarpon.  Capt. Skip Nielsen reported good fishing as well, and Capt. Bill Basset jumped 5 fish.  Capt. Mike Basset had a nice snook in the back and caught three the day before which was good to see, plus several puppy drum reds.  The trout and ladyfish were biting decent as well.  On the ocean side, the Kalex had a rackful of nice 25-30 lb blackfin tunas!  The BnM caught another big tiger shark as well, and the Catch 22 reported a 600 lb mako eating several jacks and such they were trying to catch before they could get them to the boat!  Exciting fishing in Islamorada this April!!!

4/9/11 Florida Tarpon Fishing great in the everglades!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk had a great day today with a large corporate group that booked several boats out of Bud n' Mary's for a few days of fishing!  He caught plenty of ladyfish, trout, and snappers to start the day.  They then put the big rods out in the backcountry and the tarpon were thick!  The first one they caught 5 minutes after putting the baits out - a large 140+ lb beast!!!  Then they caught another 75 lber.  A 3rd fish they got up to the boat and jumped off for a palm beach release!  They had a couple other bites they missed and then caught a 75 lb bull shark.  Great action for these guys!  Capt. Perry Scuderi caught 3 tarpon as well right next to me!

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

4/3/11 Great islamorada tarpon fishing with Greg Olsen and family!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk had the pleasure of fishing former catcher of the Atlanta Braves, Greg Olsen and family Robbie & Racheal, today on 4/3/11.  It was a beautiful day started out fairly calm with a light breeze and flat water.  We ran in the backcountry and fished a bay area catching a mix of ladyfish, trout, snapper, and a few small sharks.  We anchored up for a bit and netted some ballyhoo for some bigger ladies and snappers as well.  The kids had a blast doing this and so did Greg!  We saved some stuff for bait and moved off in search of larger fish, as Racheal really wanted to see a big shark and Robbie was dying to catch a tarpon!  We anchored up at one of my favorite spots, and almost instantly Greg hooked a huge tarpon!  Unfortunately he jumped him off with a little too ambitious hook set, but got a good jump out of him anyhow!  We then caught two unknown 'sea monsters' that drug us around a little bit, Robbie fought one entirely on his own that we leadered and released.  We caught a few sharks there, some blacktips and one nurse.  Had one other tarpon bite we missed that almost jumped in the boat, then Robbie hooked one himself - a big 120 lb tarpon!  We fought him for about 30 minutes and had him hooked perfect with the circle hook, got a good picture of him, and released him!  The east wind picked up a bit, but tarpon were busting everywhere on the in tide which was great to see after a nasty front came through a few days earlier!  Great day of islamorada backcountry fishing for the Olsen family with Capt. Rick Stanczyk!

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

3/31/11 More florida keys night tarpon fishing action!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk two nights in a row for my first two night tarpon trips.  Another successful evening we landed this 90 lb tarpon close to home, it was another windy night early though it layed down very nice an hour or so before sunset - prime tarpon time!  Stayed close to home as one of my anglers had a broken ankle and didn't want to get beat up to bad.  We were fishing mostly live mullet again, had a few 'chasers' early in the evening, though didn't come tight on any.  Caught a couple sharks off the bottom as well.  We started drifting when the winds layed down, and this florida keys tarpon went airborne on our mullet!!!  Did everything right and caught him in about 20 minutes.  Drug him up on the flat in shallow water and got this great picture of him.  Worth getting a little wet for this memory of a life time!

3/30/11 Night tarpon action!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished Bob and Stephanie down from NJ for a last minute night tarpon trip.  This was my first night tarpon trip this year, so was anxious to get out there for some sunset action!  We fished some of the bridges down the road first, things were fairly slow as far as the tarpon went.  Had one possible bite that we never came tight with.  Caught a couple nurse sharks on the bottom.  We then drifted around the bridge and back towards the bay with mullet on the surface.  We had them get nervous a few times, and came across some small blacktips, which we caught a couple of.  After that it was getting to be close to 7:00, so I ran to a little spot in the bay I like to fish.  We put them out there, and within 3 minutes had a very nervous bait behind the boat.  Something big chased the mullet around, I figured a shark as it wasn't acting very tarpon-ish.  He missed that mullet and then went after the 2nd mullet on the other side, and gulped him down!  The line came tight and Stephanie started reeling fast like I told her too.  He made a sluggish run towards the bow of the boat, and after a couple minutes, made a huge jump - big 100 lb tarpon!  We dropped our anchor and chased him, my angler did a great job of bowing to the fish when he started jumping crazy which he did after we put some  heat on him!  We fought him for about 30 minutes, finally landing him and getting a few shots in the water.  Great fish, and great way to start my night fishing this year!  Back to a full day tomorrow, though have another night Saturday.  Now's the time to book your night tarpon fishing as most guides are getting very busy from now through June with the night tarpon - the fish are here, and Richie is delivering live mullet in the morning and afternoon, so get on down here!

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