10/11/11 Everglades tarpon action and more!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished today with his girlfriend Elizabeth and friend Ron Modra for some islamorada fishing october.  We got a bit of a late start and took time to run around and find some bait.  Could not find pilchards to the north, but did find a few big balls of mullet.  Threw the net on them a few times and got tons of good size small mullet.  Ran in the everglades with those and some shrimp.  Caught a nice snook on first finger mullet out, tried a few other areas around the island but no more luck.  Caught plenty of snappers and jacks though on shrimps.  Went to a tarpon spot and put out some more mullets on the bottom.  Ron caught a nice 80 lb tarpon about 15 minutes later!  Tide quit on us then and it was high noon.  We ran further out to check things out, stopped at a spot.  Very slick calm and beautiful - tarpon everywhere!  Had a couple chase mullets on top, but missed them.  Ron hooked a mystery fish that we could not get off the bottom on a light rod, maybe a juvenile goliath??  Anyways ran into some creek areas after, lots of tarpon in there too and some big schools of mullet they were busting, had another zip us and suck the bait off, and after that decided to call it a day!  I imagine if the mullet stay around, the tarpon will too before it gets cold, so come on down!

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

9/22/11 Good fishing report from Capt. Mike Bassett

Capt. Mike Bassett reported catching a few redfish as well as a small tarpon, some trout and big jacks too.  He also reported they lost a large snook in the mangroves and a goliath grouper got them wrapped up in the bottom too, but that's fishing!

9/8/11 Some tarpon action!

Andy and Even from Germany went back out for another half day with Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti. They went 3 for 7 on Tarpon and also caught 10 nice Jack crevalle on surface plugs.  Great to see some tarpon this late in the year close by!

8/24/11 Florida Keys Backcountry Fishing Action!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk has still been picking up a handful of half day trips short notice and getting some good action in on his islamorada backcountry fishing trips!  We headed out this A.M. in search of some table fare and the mangrove snapper bite in the bay has been pretty good!  We headed out to the west and anchored in an area where there has been plenty.  We chummed up a few small ballyhoos and netted a few of those.  Cutting them in half made perfect baits for the hungry mangs, also a few small ladyfish worked almost as well cut in small chunks. After we had enough of that we headed back towards Islamorada to try to bend the big rods.  We ended up jumping a small tarpon.  Then after putting the last couple pieces we hooked a double header.  One was a nice 30 lb cuda that skyrocketted all around the boat.  The other was some kind of monster hugged on the bottm!  We got the cuda in and released him and then proceeded to fight the other.  After a 15 minute battle we pulled up this huge sea monster!

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

8/22/11 Late summer tarpon action!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished a half day this morning with the Freed family.  We left out early at 7 am with a few weather cells looming in the islamorada backcountry.  We headed out to some of the bays out west and got lucky with the weather avoiding for the most part!  Using gulps we caught plenty of trout, snappers, and some ladyfish.  We weren't interested in keeping stuff for dinner, so mostly catch and release minus a few we kept for bait!  As the sun got higher the fishing slowed down a bit, so we decided to try and catch something big for the boys!  We ran back towards Islamorada and set up for some florida tarpon fishing!  Fishing 3 baits we sat and waited... had one shark bite us off without disturbing the rod at all - very strange!  A few minutes before we were about to head in as another storm cell approached and the temperature dropped and wind blew, ZING goes the line and a 60 lb tarpon goes airborne several times!  We fight him for about 20 minutes and get him to the boat!  Then head in before the rain, what a way to end the day islamorada backcountry fishing!!!

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