4/4/12 April backcountry tarpon fishing lights up!

April tarpon fishing in Islamorada lit up in the backcountry today for Capt. Rick Stanczyk on 4/4/12.  Had Rob Gottlieb and Lee Wasserman down, regular who have fished with me the last several years.  Last October they came and we caught some nice redfish, black drum, snook, snappers, trout, and pompano.  Lee also caught a nice bonefish on the next day which was rainy/windy.  This time they were here for the big tarpon.  We fished last night for some florida keys night tarpon fishing.  The bite was fair for the conditions, being in-tide and very weedy.  We had 2 good strikes on the mullets up top which we did not hook up with, and did end up catching on a ladyfish.  Today we did a 3/4 day, fished the bay and caught snappers for dinner, trout, and a few ladyfish.  Headed further into the backcountry for the last 1.5 hours and it was game-on for big tarpon!  We caught 3 out of 4, missing one which grabbed the shark rod.  All nice fish in the 80-100 lb range, which jumped and went absolutely nuts allowing for quick catches since they tired very fast.  These fish seemed to be fresh in from the gulf, very good to see them!  I hope they stick around back there for a while!  Florida keys tarpon fishing in April is prime time, so come on down!

Islamorada tarpon fishing in April!

Capt. Skip Nielsen reported for the past week islamorada tarpon fishing...

I had Bryce Henderson from Leeds, England out for five Tarpon fishing sessions this past week. On the first 4 trips he caught 2 Tarpon each time. On the last trip he had fantastic action catching and releasing 5 Tarpon. All the fish were caught using Foxsportfishing Tackle on live Mullet for bait.

Last night, Capt. Rick Stanczyk had Nick and John Hodge, they each caught a big tarpon and had a couple others eat knock off our mullets.  The fish did bite early on the in tide which was good, water was very clear you could see them laying on the bottom all around the bridges. Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti also had some successful nights tarpon fishing this past week, again mostly on live mullet, as did Capt. John Johansen, Capt. Mike Bassett, and Capt. Jeff Beeler.  Tarpon fishing in April is prime time.  The fish our feeding on mullet during the days, crabs will still work but usually better around sunset/sunrise or when it's dark.  Live mullet is available through Richie now, check at Bud n' Mary's and they can put you in touch!  Get on out for some florida keys night tarpon fishing!

3/24/12 Islamorada tarpon fishing heats up

Capt. Rick Stanczyk reported a great bite of islamorada tarpon fishing early this morning at 5 am.  We had the last hour and a half of falling tide, before daylight, and we had bites on all of our first 5 drifts.  Anna got one nice fish to the boat, one steal a crab, jumped off 2 others, and had one we fought and chased down that got us around a lobster pot.  Good action it was all before daylight, drifting live crabs was the ticket.  The next few days and evenings will have excellent tidal conditions and winds are (and will hopefully stay) down.  The fish are absolutely here but the heavy winds and in-tide has not been great - that is changing the for the next several days!  Book a night tarpon fishing charter now while conditions are ideal!  Boats reported a good bite late yesterday afternoon as well, Capt. Skip Nielsen boated 3 yesterday.  March fishing in Islamorada is a great time for big tarpon!

3/10/12 Spring time monsters of Islamorada

Well after a long week of high winds which is typical of March, we finally had a little calmer day today on 3/10/12.  Almost every boat was out today at Bud n' Mary's Marina, it's very busy and everyone is happy about that!  Fishing Islamorada in March has been tricky as the high winds have left the backcountry very stirred up, lots and lots of weed everywhere you go.  Winds were down but not gone, started this morning out of the north with some scattered showers around most people avoided.  By afternoon it swung around to the east and was blowing steady 15 mph again, still not too bad.  Most everyone did some drifting in the bays and muds in the backcountry.  Trout fishing was fair for most, not a red hot bite but most fish were keeper size.  A handful of ladyfish mixed in but most guys had to really run around to find any of those.  There were some keeper size mangrove snappers also out on the edge of the gulf for some good table fare.  We had several multi-boat group trips in the islamorada backcountry today, and all did plenty of rod bending and caught big fish.  Remember if you have a group charter, with Bud n' Mary's every captain and guide is at one dock, you can get your breakfast/lunch and drinks to go.  There is no calling multiple captains, wondering if one will not show or any miscommunication of what's going on.  We all get along and can work together to produce fish for everyone!  Capt. Rick Stanczyk had a slow start, but ended up catching 2 nice tarpon of 75 and 120 lbs plus several smaller blacktip sharks.  Capt. Jim Willcox caught some blacktips and lemon sharks, as well as a 250 lb goliath grouper that was 6 ft. long in one of the backcountry channels.  Capt. Clyde Upchurch had a large mud marlin and also caught a cobia off of him.  Capt. Perry Scuderi reported getting the leader on a 50 lb tarpon before he jumped off, and also reported a decent bite of pompano in a mud close to home.  Capt. Bill Bassett reported lots of sharks, from blacktips to lemons and bulls.  As you can see in the tarpon picture below, once the in tide got going the weed made it almost unfishable, hopefully it will clear up soon!  Islamorada tarpon fishing in March has been tricky, fish are around but conditions are not ideal.  On the islamorada deep sea fishing side both the BNM and Finnster reported some nice big amberjacks.  9 yar old Q caught a 76 lb amberjack with Capt. Nick Stanczyk on BNM.  Relentless had a couple sailfish, Reel McCoy ahd one sail, most boats had plenty of yellowtail on the reef, and Catch 22 had a pair of cobia up to 40 lbs.  Islamorada reef fishing has been steady and the yellowtails have been fairly big, lots of flags!

3/1/12 Islamorada night tarpon fishing and backcountry redfish

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished with Dave and Frank the last 4 days, ending on 3/1/12 for some islamorada night tarpon fishing and florida keys backcountry redfish charters.  The main focus was tarpon as both guys wanted to catch one, day one and two fishing was tough the high winds had stirred much of the bays and backcountry up.  We were able to catch plenty of ladyfish, jacks, some snappers and nice trout.  We saved the ladies for bait and fished them around several different channels back there.  First day we caught several small blacktip sharks and a couple big ones that did put on a show at least, day two we caught nothing but small ones and did have a couple tarpon bites that wouldn't stay on there.  Current was very weak everywhere as well making it tough for the bait scent to get out there, and to encourage the fish to feed.  Day 3 we decided to do the early morning night fishing.  We left at 3 am with some crabs and pinfish and did some islamorada bridge fishing.  First couple spots were very weedy, we eventually moved to another bridge, and Dave hooked a nice 100 lb fish that went nuts!  We fought him for almost an hour, boating him and releasing him unharmed.  Daylight was upon us now, saw several fish in the area rolling, but no more bites.  Called it a day after that, and put a long day in our last day.  Left at 3 again, fished the bridges close to home since the wind was howling a bit more, and did pretty well.  Two bites and caught 1 fish for Frank in our first 2 drifts, of about 65 lbs.  No more action as the tied died, so we anchored near the bridge, as soon as the tide started going out, another one stole a crab.  A few minutes later and Frank was hooked up catching tarpon in islamorada, very strange bite he swam right at us and did not jump until the very end.  Caught him as it started to get light, nice 80 lb fish, and then headed into the backcountry for the rest of the day.  Fished a couple islands and had a good bite of redfish, we poled around hitting several trees, picking a few fish here and there.  Got in to a couple good holes that had 6-8 fish a piece, including a few large slot and even a couple over the slot fish!  All in all a great trip for these fellows who stayed right at Bud n' Mary's. Things started off tough but we made adjustments to put 'em on some fish!

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