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

3/30/11 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

3/19/11 Florida Keys backcountry fishing half day!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished a half day today in the florida keys backcountry.  There was a big mud that's been around for a couple weeks and we caught half a dozen nice size trout in there plus a few smaller ones.  Plenty of ladyfish, some nice sized ones too, jacks, and a nice size bluefish.  Good action close to home about 20 minutes away!  We then set up to catch a shark nearby and put the big rods out.  Soon we hooked a nice size blacktip we drifted down on and caught.  After we reset, one rod started zinging out line - boom - big 80 lb tarpon on!  Unfortunately he jumped crazily and we actually straightened the hook on him, oh well!  We gave it another shot for the last few minutes of our morning and then another shark bite.  Line zinged all over the transom and didn't feel like a big fish, but soon he took off straight behind us and we followed.  A nice 80-90 lb hammerhead, 3rd one I'd caught this week!  We got him up for a picture and released him and headed home!

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

 Captain Ted Wilson also reported this week... Just when we were starting to get used to having tarpon back in the neighborhood again things were turned upside down last week by a late season cool front. But with this week's rising water temperatures the tarpon are starting to move back into their early-season locales. Stewart Sarnac from Jacksonville and wife Angie went two for three tarpon in the 90 to 100 lb range deep into the Islamorada backcountry. Strangely the only bites came on pin fish even though they had a variety of baits to choose from. Whatever their tastes, Islamorada fishing guides like myself are excited to see them back in town and ready to eat.

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

3/10/11 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!