5/13/11 + 5/14/11 Some redfish action and some big monsters in the back!

Capt Jim Willcox on 5/13/11, over 100 redfish with Eric & Jack from west coast Florida plus a limit of large snappers! 27 double headers!!!The tarpon did elude us at the end of the day!  Also Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished today on 5/14/11 in the back... caught plenty of snappers for dinner, ladyfish, and some trout.  They put the big rods out in hopes of tarpon, saw plenty rolling but they weren't biting.  Did catch a nice blacktip, big 300 lb goliath grouper, and a 2 out of 3 'sea monsters' that were several hundred pounds!!!  The tarpon did bite last night though, but they are getting a little funny as we approach the full moon!

5/11/11 Backcountry tarpon fishing Islamorada

Capt. Rick Stanczyk had Guillaume and his mother Christiane from Quebec out for some florida keys fishing today on 5/11/11!  We left the dock early, they were short on the shrimp delivery so we used some berkley gulps!  We caught several nice big trout, some ladyfish, and some snappers for dinner.  When the tide quit we ran inside around one of the islands and caught one nice redfish, had a couple other bites we missed.  Before the water got too low to get out, we jumped out and set up for some sharks and tarpon.  Caught a few blacktips, and had a few jump and bend out our wire!  Very exciting!  We also had one tarpon bite we missed, and about 20 minutes later, hooked about a 60 lber we caught!  Got him leadered to the boat, but when we tried to get our picture he came unhooked unfortunately.  Anyways a good day backcountry fishing in Islamorada.  Capt. John Johansen also had a nice catch of tripletails from out on the edge of the gulf, and Capt. Dave Sisung reported a good tarpon bite close to home, catching two and having a couple others chase the mullets on top.  Capt. Skip Nielsen also reported catching a huge 300 lb goliath grouper in one of the channels in the backcountry!  On the ocean side, Capt. Nick Stanczyk had a 200+ lb swordfish today offshore as well, I'm sure there will be pictures to come!

5/7/11 Big day backcountry fishing Islamorada!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished two half days today on 5/7/11.  In the morning we went in the back and caught plenty of ladyfish, snapper, trout, and jacks.  We decided to put the big rods out for a shark or something... and the tarpon had moved back into some of my favorite areas back there!  We went 1/2 plus caught a 100 lb hammerhead and 30 lb blackstip all in about 40 minutes - great fishing!!!  This evening we also did a night tarpon trip, went 0/2 on the tarpon they eluded us, but did have a couple permit crush the crabs one of which we caught this nice 25 lber on a medium spin rod!  Going early tomorrow for tarpon at 5 am to catch the daybreak bite!

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