Well I’ve been fishing a little here & there in June but Capt. Stephen has been running the boat a bit more regularly. With my kids out of school now and also my wife broke her ankle last week I’ve definitely had my hands full but luckily things with Capt. Stephen running the boat for me part time is working out very well. He’s been fishing a lot with me on charters as well as when I go with my dad once a week for fun and I’ve been able to really share with him exactly what I do fishing wise. We’re working together to keep stocked up on bait when possible and being there isn’t any threat of competition sharing fishing knowledge entirely day to day. So as far as fishing goes lately we had some good summer tarpon action in early June in the backcountry however that has slowed down a little bit. There are still tarpon around and you can definitely have some good fishing for them but the last week and foreseeable future we have some southerly wind which kinda seems to keep them down a little more and not quite as happy as they are when we have more easterly wind direction. But luckily we’ve been mixing it up with snook lately and the snook bite thus far has been incredible. Seeing lots of fish on the shorelines which is great even with the not-so-great southerly winds. Lots of small and medium size fish and good rod bending action. I’ve been catching a handful of larger snook with my dad when we go do that ‘trophy fishing’ but that has often been fishing all day for a bite or two so not what we’re doing necessarily all the time on charters. Tripletail fishing this summer has been a little slow we’re not really seeing a lot of them floating freely which is unusual but we have been catching a few off structure here & there. Lots of bait is around in the backcountry too which is good to see and overall very nice water quality even with the south wind which has a tendency to make it muddier as it blows on shore. Overall I think things look promising for July and the later summer. The last couple of years we had somewhat mediocre later summer tarpon fishing though with all the bait we’re seeing now and the cleaner water, I think it’s lining up to be productive when we get a little shift to that later summer mode. And the fall may be very good too when we have that wind direction change and start getting more northeasterly breezes and the bait runs I’m really interested to see what happens there.
Anyways if you want to get out fishing give me a shout again I’m sharing duties with Capt. Stephen though I’ll be booking stuff directly more short notice if you are wanting to fish with me. Stephen will be in the Bahamas over July so I’ll be running a few trips then. But I also have Capt. Brandon still running the seacraft and Capt. Trentin running our 18′ action craft. They both have plenty of availability as well. Capt. Trentin will be available for some evening trips in July too so that can be a very productive time for tarpon fishing if you are here during July and it’s not very busy on the water then so you really get it to yourself.
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina
