July is nearing its end and this month has been all about one thing – tarpon! I’ve had the best month as far as numbers go ever this year in July, and that record was shattered just after the 2nd week. We had an insane everglades backcountry tarpon bite this July with tons of resident fish showing up in the channels and bays, plus ideal calm conditions for the majority of the month. As I am writing this however we’ve just gotten on a spell of nasty southwesterly winds with thunderstorms about and did have my first day this month where we did not catch a tarpon. But that’s not too bad after a 20 days streak of catchin’! I had my biggest day ever this month as well, landing a total of 16 tarpon in one outing plus several more getting into double digits. The monthly totals at this point are already over 100 tarpon landed (my previous best month being 66). This is something that may only happen a good handful of times in a captains career! I haven’t been doing a whole lot else aside from tarpon fishing, though we have gotten a handful of snook on days we’ve tried that, as well as a few tripletail that are floating around in the open water whilst looking for tarpon. We did get a few nice trout the other afternoon as well when the tarpon fishing had dried up. Anyways I am hoping we will have a fairly strong August if conditions get ripe again. They do look to improve in the next couple days as winds get more into the southeasterly quadrant and back into the less than 10 mph range. Of course with all the catchin’ going on I’ve been very busy and am booked through the end of the month and then going on vacation the first week of August. But later in August can still be a good time to come. If you are interested in fishing give me a shout I’ll likely have days available and will shoot you straight as I’ve had a super busy season so I really am just wanting to get out there when it’s good or at least seems like it’ll be!
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
