Fishing Reports

Well April has almost come & gone!  I’ve been fishing a bit more however it’s been primarily tarpon fishing at the bridges most every day.  That’s all I’m going to be doing from here on out for the most part in April, May, and some in June.  March may be a little bit of early season tarpon in the backcountry.  But fishing has been fair for the bridge tarpon we’ve had a handful of really good days and a lot of days of having to work hard for a handful of bites.  I did do a couple different things this week that I’ll share.  A couple days ago I had my very good client and friend Bill out.  We caught 4 tarpon on Monday and he takes good care of me so I gave him the option of running deep into the Gulf to check out some permit fishing.  He was happy to do it.  We ran a long way to a wreck and found quite a few good schools of spawning permit.  Sight fishing them is very cool you see groups of 50-100 fish and they like to float on the surface sometimes even sticking their heads out of the water.  Pitch a crab into them and WHAM!  We hooked half a dozen or so in the morning but many of them got eaten by sharks and a few we broke off.  We did manage to get one to the boat though so Bill was stoked about that and he had an excellent time just seeing something special like that and being able to hook up to those fish is fun in itself even if you don’t land them.  Yesterday I had my dad out for our weekly fishing trip and we checked out some big snook spots in the backcountry which we haven’t really done much of this month.  Not a whole lot to write home about but we did manage one good size fish around 16 lbs or so and we did find a load of nice tripletail and got two in the 18-20 inch range which were fun to catch.

My other crew of captains has been very busy too but coming up in May they have some availability.  Capt. Stephen who is running my boat has been having a good time with clients.  He’s available on Fridays and Saturdays, and will be taking night trips in May on occasion too for tarpon.  Capt. Trentin on the skiff is available for morning or afternoon half days or full day trips and he’s been doing really well too with local tarpon, snook, and has become very good at catching big mangrove snappers.  Capt. Brandon  is mostly booked for the month of May but he’s been killing it out there too.

Give me a shout to get out on the water!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina

Got out with my dad and our buddy Ed for a quick sunday morning half day trip.  Had to be back in early as I had to watch my boys in the afternoon so we just left the dock at 6 and were back in by 11.  We had another late season ‘cool’ front approaching and it was almost slick calm with just a light northerly breeze early on.  As the morning went on it actually got slightly colder and the sun never seemed to really want to come out.  Definitely one of those prefrontal days.  But the fish were happy as they often are on days like that.  We managed 3 jumbo snooks and had one other bite we missed!  Snook of this caliber you are lucky to catch one fishing all day long often times, and many times it’s all or nothing you have to put the time in to get that one bite.  So getting three was a thrill!  Jigging large size pinfish did the trick for these large everglades snook.  We’ve been getting a few more in recent weeks so that’s a good sign hopefully we’ll have an awesome summer for them.  Of course there were plenty of tarpon splashing around out there too we didn’t really mess with them.  But this time of year it’s definitely possible to do some tarpon fishing and still have time to try for a trophy snook such as this.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina

I had my regular customer Paul out with a couple of his buddies.  We had a late cold front come through and the winds were cranking pretty good and it chilled down not super cold but in the high 60s in the evening.  I wasn’t quite sure what we’d found in the backcountry and was a little worried not much would be happening.  But I checked the water temperatures in the bay on the data buoys and it was chilly in the high 60s as well.  But I knew we were going to be fishing in the near gulf which is deeper and often warmer water.  I remembered a similar condition several years ago and the tarpon didn’t seem to mind much as it wasn’t super early in the season and they had been staged up there for a month ago… pretty much exact same setup as this.  So we gave it a go and boy was it the right choice!  Early on wasn’t too bad the wind was northeast and we were a little protected from the swells.  We got a tarpon bite with the first bait out that we missed.  Caught several sharks and we hopped around, hooking four more tarpon all of which we got leader on and a couple boatside but we didn’t bother going for pictures as the sharks we knew were bad.  One got eaten on us unfortunately after we had broke the line on it.  But great fishing none the less and I did get a few good video clips for the guys you can see here.  I have a couple open days later this month still and a handful in April, and a few more in May still.  Doing my seasonal rate still but again I’m only fishing 3 days a week and can often move your day around if conditions don’t look great (on this day the boys still opted to go as that was there day to fish) and I also get good video footage most of the time and you’ll get copies of professionally edited video clips such as this, and possibly even a full video that makes the Bud n’ Mary’s YouTube channel!  Give me a shout if you want to go, even if it’s not with me I also of course have my couple other captains running vessels that do a great job.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

: @richardstanczyk
: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina
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Got out with return customer Irv today and his buddy Billy.  Just a gorgeous calm spring day you don’t get any better weather wise.  We had plenty of mullet I had caught over the weekend and also a few big shrimp that were in the tanks.  I was hoping we’d get into the tarpon with the calm spell and sure enough there were tons of ’em out there!  We landed four nice tarpon not monster size fish but more in the 40 to 60 lb range.  Good fighters that you don’t have to pull on forever but you still get all the beautiful jumps and fun.  We also missed a couple others the action was pretty hot & heavy you could say.  Once the tide quit the sharks started to show up a little bit and we decided to switch gears.  It was one of those special days for sure though we got into some big jumbo snook and landed four of them as well!  A couple of those good spots have had some fish the few recent times I’ve been with my dad, and they were there today.  We also caught another one in a spot that we hadn’t caught much lately.  But wow what a day this is the type you dream about.  I’m off for a short ski vacation now and then have kids spring break later this month.  But I have a few days open still in March possibly and if not I have my crew of captains available.  I do have a few prime time spots left in April & May too if you are interested give me a shout!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina

Got out with my dad and his good buddy Pete who often fishes with us.  Pete hadn’t been down in a while so he was glad to get out on the water.  We had a fair bit of wind though it was relatively calm early in the backcountry with the colder air and picked up as the day went on.  Strong incoming tide though the mid-day falling tide was very weak, on one of those cycles.  This often isn’t necessarily a bad thing for hunting the big trophy fish we like to do as it makes many of those areas much more fishable without heavy current.  Water temperatures were still a little chilly in the high 60s but the water for the most part looked pretty good not too muddy in many areas.  We found a couple spots that we hadn’t really been catching much at that both had some nice black drums.  Not monsters but good 10-12 lb fish, we caught 2 or 3 off each one.  The first one too my dad got a monstrous snook that was super fat.  Not over 40 inches but the belly was just big.  Seems a lot of these big near gulf/everglades fish are like that they rarely push over 40 inches but some of the bellies are just huge so they must weigh more than an average fish that size.  Anyways good to see some big beauties out there.  Doesn’t look like much cold weather in the future so that might be it for the year.  Tarpon should be just around the corner I think a nice calm day or two and they’ll be loading up offshore in the backcountry.  That early season fishing can be good through the next couple months and one of my favorite times to be back there.  You may not get the amount of bites you do when the bridge fishing is red hot, but not having to deal with the bridge and the boat traffic is definitely a plus.  I have open days through the rest of February and some in March too.  Let’s go fishing!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina