September 2018

9/30/18 September Tarpon Fishing in Islamorada

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

9/11/2018 September Islamorada Fishing Report in the Florida Keys

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