Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Fishing Islamorada

Well what a day we were filming for our YouTube show again today.  Had my dad and our friend Ron Modra, along with Ricky Walker from Scotland who is a film producer there.  He shot the film for us today.  We fished in the backcountry and it was pretty good.  Seemed to be some fish just about everywhere we went.  Lost a few good snook early to some sharks, and missed another in the net, they weren’t playing nice with us!  We did get a few smaller ones and one decent one, plus some good redfish.  Next stop some black drums and reds and one good snook.  Then we got into a mess of smaller reds, snooks, and some nice trout.  All in all good fishing and perfect for the filming.  We tried some spots again for some big fish, again we had broke one off and lost another at the boat just frustrating one of those days.  Finally last stop of the day we hooked something big right away.  I thought it was a big redfish, as that’s what we’d caught there the last couple of days.  My dad hooked up too so we had a double header.  All of a sudden Rons took off, and I thought a shark had eaten it so we yelled Shark!  My dad put the wood to his fish, and unfortunately it ended up breaking off but jumped one time and we could see it was a monster snook!  Ron’s finally stopped running, and he started reeling it back in… I was expecting to just see the head of some big redfish, but sure enough it was a monstrous snook!  We got it to the boat, and it came off the hook but luckily I got it’s head in the net and we landed it.  A huge 40 inch once in a lifetime fish!  Getting that one made up for all the rest we lost, and what a way to end our day.  We did have one more bite on a pinfish that we missed, and that was it.  Awesome day out there, always nice when you get a fish like that which we’ll forever remember.  And the ones you lose make for good stories down the line.

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

Well another awesome 3/4 day with my friend Peter and his buddy Will. We went out into the park this morning. Chilly again with a decent north breeze though not crazy rough. We fished around several areas and had some luck in just about all of them. Caught a good handful of reds and a couple snook in the first stop, got one decent 10 pound red here. Next stop we got into a mess of smaller ones but still respectable a lot of 3 to 6 lbers. A few small snook too and a couple black drum. Next stop we got a decent snook of 7 lbs or so. Then on the way home we stopped where we had found a handful of big redfish yesterday. I was interested to see if they would still be there or if it was just a fluke. Sure enough first cast we scored a big nice one! Caught 4 more I think all in the 12 to 16 pound range very nice for Florida bay redfish. Then last cast Peter hooked into something huge! After about 5 minutes of tug o war we got a glimpse, it was a huge black drum a.k.a big nasty! We fought it for another 5 minutes or so, very hard to turn him over. But we got him, wow what a fish id say in the 30 to 35 pound range! Just an awesome way to finish our day. Back at it tomorrow folks.

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

Got out with Nathan and his wife Heather for a 3/4 day today.  Nathan is friends with Chad Crawford who does a TV show called How to do Florida which we’ve done a few episodes with him for the marina.  The weather was nice still slightly chilly with a slight northwest breeze but overall pretty calm.  The water got real pretty in a lot of spots.  We caught a good number of redfish in the first area, then a few jacks and mackerels moved in and it quieted down.  We moved around and got into another good bite of redfish, a couple bigger fish and a nice snook.  But again the jacks got on us and it was hard to get through them.  After that we ran and tried another area, got a nice 12 lb snook there.  We headed up the coast and fished a few sandbars, got a black drum off each one of them nothing huge but one was a decent 7 or 8 lber.  We then got shallow and found a good number of redfish again with a couple more drum and a couple small snook.  Ran around and tried some more areas, a few more reds and snook, and then found some floating tripletail.  We caught 1 but missed another bigger one that was about 10 lbs.  On the way home tried a new spot where I’d caught a few big snook in the summer.  Today was the right day we caught a half dozen big redfish in the 10 to 15 lb range!  Also had a few more tripletails float by us but we were busy with the reds.  All in all a fantastic day in the bay, looks like it’ll cool down again tonight and north wind tomorrow, I think that’ll actually be better for the fishing again.  I’ll be back at it tomorrow and Thursday then taking Friday off.

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

Fun 3/4 day with Mike, Mike, and Anthony! It finally cooled off for real here in the last couple days with a chilly cold front. Got into the 60s in the keys an time to pull out the sweatshirts and jeans. The winds had laid down nicely though and it wasn’t an extremely cold situation. We worked around a half dozen areas, though one was much more productive than the rest. The fish were happy we caught a pile of redfish, including a few nice size ones in the 12 – 15 lb range. As it warmed up the snooks came out to play, we caught one real nice 15 lber plus a couple others in the 10 lb range, and a good handful of smaller size ones too. Also a couple black drums. Active morning it was very nice by the time we had to head home, and looks like it’ll stay chilly but no crazy wind so should be good for the fishing now that they’re adjusted to the cool off. Back at it tomorrow.

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

Got out with Mark and his brother Barry today along with my dad.  Mark is the former mayor of Islamorada and his brother Barry has worked at Bud n Marys for a few years now.  We had a great day it slicked out between fronts here as it’s suppose to cool off more tomorrow though not get real cold.  Fishing was really good we found some good numbers of snook and redfish.  Got into a handful of very large snook too, probably two of them that were 18-20 lbs, and one 15 lber.  Also plenty of medium to large size in the 6 to 10 lb range.  Reds were very stout too a few that were 12 to 14 lbs, and plenty of 6 to 8 lbers.  We also finished up the day with a couple nice tripletail we saw quite a few floating by.  All in all a stellar beautiful day on the water, a little more cool weather should keep the bite good!

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