Backcountry Fishing Reports

September is almost at an end officially and it has been one for the record books as far as the tarpon fishing goes!  I reported earlier this month that we were having some great fishing and it just lasted right on through and really I think will continue well into October.  We’ve had some good northerly winds in the morning that are cooling things off early, and big schools of tarpon that seem to be going into that Fall mode where they are aggressive and jumping around all over making them easier to find!  The bait isn’t really thick yet but the fish are definitely here.  Overall for the month I fished a dozen trips and we caught 55 tarpon!  That’s about 4.6 tarpon per trip which really is incredible.  So don’t go sleeping on September, just because it’s ‘off season’ does not mean the fishing is bad.  It really can be some of the best fishing we have all year and it’s nice as there is hardly anybody around.  It all comes down to conditions, conditions, conditions – and they’ve been really good!  Today I had Paul and Jennifer and they landed four tarpon, with three of them in the 75 to 110 lb range so some bigger fish!  Last Thursday I fished Todd and Farrah and they landed 5 tarpon in the 30 to 60 lb range.  And a few days before that I had Mike and Jarrah who also landed 5 tarpon but smaller guys in the 20 to 40 lb range.  And the list goes on and on!  October is right around the corner and like I said, I think the fishing will stay strong until we really start getting some hard cold fronts which isn’t usually until November.  So if you are interested in chasing the silver king give me a shout.  I will shoot you straight and don’t mind moving days around if necessary to give you the best shot, another nice thing about fishing in the off season.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Well September is rolling on by and I must say the fishing has gotten pretty incredible as of late!  There are absolutely tons of tarpon around and it appears we are starting to get a bit of the ‘fall conditions’ a little early that we usually start experiencing in October.  Some more northeasterly winds have cooled things off just a hair and the fish seem to really be responding.  The last couple days out we saw hundreds of tarpon and had double digit bites each of two days.  Bait has been a little tough and we’ve really had to work hard at that, but we were able to get enough and made some great days happen.  Getting out early is key and you have to be dedicated to it, but I think the fishing will stay good for a while.  We are forecast to have nice calm winds for the foreseeable future so the fish should stay happy and it’ll only get better are my thoughts.  Right now I’m wide open until the end of the month, and we are getting better early morning tides for bait this coming week.  So if you are looking to go fishing this month give me a shout, as I said I think it’ll be good for tarpon through october and this is the last consistent period before winter comes and we leave the tarpon alone while it’s cold and they aren’t biting.  Though of course there are other things to fish for then too such as snook, redfish, drum, mackerel, etc…

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Well August is nearing it’s end boy time flies!  We are officially in ‘off season’ mode it feels like.  I can tell the last week or so the phone stopped ringing and the emails have stopped coming in.  Now through September is always a very slow time with business down here, October usually picks up a tad and then again in November.  But it’s a great time to come down because you really have the place to yourself!  We catch all difference species here year round, and we actually get some really good conditions in the late summer/early fall with calmer winds and such.  As of late I’ve been fishing a little bit but getting a few days off a week and we also were on vacation for 7 days or so.  The tarpon are still around and biting, today actually we saw hundreds of tarpon in a big school and managed to catch several of them, including an 80 and 120 lber, so some big ones believe it or not!  The tarpon fishing as of late I’ll say has been fair… it’s not the red hot pull-you-out-of-the-boat action we had in July, but if you put time in and find a good group of fish, you usually get a few shots.  We’ve had a little more wind than usual so that has also made things a little tougher though not terrible.  With the warm water temperatures, even a 15 mph breeze can really stir the sediment up and get things a little muddier than we like.  So sometimes you end up having to move around a bit more to try and find clean water for certain species of fish.  As we get into September like I said it’s usually dead slow.  I have a handful of days on the books already which is great, but I’m usually available short notice if you are looking to go.  I will shoot you straight and if it doesn’t look like it’ll be good, I’ll try and move your trip to another day or even let you bail out.  As I said tarpon can still definitely be a possibility as well as snook, redfish, tripletail, trout, snapper, and more in the backcountry.  Give me a shout and let’s go fishing!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

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

June is rolling by fast and we are in full on summer time mode here in Islamorada.  It’s been calm and very warm but the fishing has been pretty good!  The month started off very slow with some very tough fishing and bad conditions with some westerly winds.  But lately I’ve been having to run a good bit further than normal to find the tarpon I’ve been catching, but it’s been excellent fishing once we get there.  Getting up extra early is mandatory for this trip.  Soon however I’m hoping some more fish will push into the more common ‘summer time’ areas that we normally fish into July and August where a 6 AM departure does the trick.  There have been a few fish in those areas as of now, but they’ve been shuffling around a lot and there has also been a lot of baby blacktip sharks which makes fishing for them very difficult as you are constantly battling to get through the sharks.  But not so in the deeper areas where I’ve been going the last couple weeks.  Other than tarpon there has been good sea trout and snapper in the bays.  Near the edge of the gulf the water has been absolutely beautiful and very lively with fish.  There has even still been some schools of spanish mackerel around which is weird to see in the summer but they are here.  Snook have been pretty good in some areas with some small redfish mixed in which are good to see too.  Tripletail are floating into the bay too closer to flamingo which are fun to cast to when you are looking for tarpon.  We saw loads of them in the channels a few days ago.  All in all summe time is a great time to fish here in Islamorada.  Get up early and beat the heat, and the fishing is usually well worth it.  Drop me a line if you want to go, I still have some open days in July and August I only have a handful of days booked as of now.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing