Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Fishing Islamorada

Spring has sprung.. incredible day with pops, cousin Kevin, and neice Casey. Jurassic Park was open with big redfish, mongo snook, 45ish lb cobia, 45ish lb big nasty black drum (one of biggest I’ve seen), and a couple big tarpon. Once in a lifetime type of day!

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

Got out with Steve, Chris, Kelly, and Cathy today for a full days trip.  They were visiting from Oregon and wanted to see the backcountry.  We ran into the creeks, it was a southeasterly wind not too bad in the morning but picked up by the afternoon.  Bugs got us a little bit early on, we caught about a half dozen fish in 20 minutes, and then moved as they were getting horrendous!  Luckily next stop was more open area and the bugs weren’t too bad at all there.  We continued to pick away at redfish and snook.  When the tide started to bottom out an hour or so later, we made another move and then got into a a good rally of fish.  Chris had a tarpon on that we got near boatside then threw the hook.  We then got into a bunch of snook and redfish, really lost count.  Cathy got a tarpon and that one we landed, got it on video but it jumped out of my hands before we could get a good still pic!  Cathy got a small goliath grouper as well.  When the tide changed, the fishing slowed a little and we eventually called it quits.  The wind was ripping on the way home, but we had a little extra time to try a spot for a shot at something big.  Conditions didn’t look great, but looked like we had a shot at least.  We got another small goliath to start, then Chris hooked up 3 nice redfish in a row – an 18 lber, a 15 lber, and then a 10 lber!  Great way to end the day with some real quality fish!

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

Got out with the Kentucky crew today, Don, John, Jeff, and Boyd.  Winds were howling a bit but nothing the Contender Bay couldn’t handle.  We tucked up in the creeks, it was dead low tide early on and a little scary getting into some areas.  Slow start but once the tide started to trickle in, the fish did too.  Picked away at some snook and redfish, then after 3 or 4 stops got into a little flurry of them catching maybe a dozen or so.  Next stop we got into a pretty hot snook bite probably caught three dozen fish in an hour and a half or so.  Nothing super huge but the numbers added up by the days end probably close to 50 fish.  Wind really started kicking on the ride home a good 25 mph or so.  But nice to put up numbers like that with the wind machine cranking hard.  Back at it tomorrow looks like similar conditions.

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