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

4/6/11 Hot night tarpon fishing bite in Islamorada

Capt. Skip Nielsen reported tarpon were biting tonight. I had Joe and Nancy Stavola from New Jersey. They are staying in the penthouse at Bud n' Mary's. Their 2 sons fished as well. Everybody released a tarpon and then Joe Jr. hooked the fifth tarpon of the night. This one we battled for 1 and 1/2 hours and the fish was still strong as we held the leader at 8:30pm. We estimated the Tarpon over 150lbs! All the bites were on live mullet.  Capt. Ed Cale also reported several bites and caught several fish as well!

4/5/11 More great florida keys fishing in April!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk had party of a large group that is fishing at Bud n' Mary's yesterday along with 7 other guides.  Several caught tarpon, plus plenty of trout, ladyfish, jacks, snappers, etc...  Capt. Rick caught this nice 100 lb tarpon, and also this 300 lb goliath grouper which was a special treat!  Also check out the picture the 'Kalex' caught of this 76 lb cobia!!!  A monster fish!  The party boat 'Miss Islamorada' fished today and came in early, catching their limit of yellowtail!  Great fishing in the florida keys for this April!

Great April Tarpon Fishing for Capt. Skip Nielsen

Capt. Skip reported yesterday that he had Deb and Rich Riolo the night before. They are staying upstairs over the tackle shop this week. They come down every year first week of April and last night released 3 Tarpon. We had lots of action.Tarpon were blasting our live mullet and "cheap shotting" us. Deb and Rich managed to hook 3 out of 10 bites. Great sunset Tarpon bite!  They also fished today and caught 4 tarpon in the backcountry!  They got DNA samples of one tarpon Deb caught for research purposes!  They also caught this toothy cuda!

Capt. Jim Willcox also caught a toothy cuda on a half day the day before, check this guy out!!!