Latest Fishing Reports - Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

2025 Tarpon Season Outlook

Here you can read our latest fishing reports. I try to keep this section updated regularly when we are tarpon fishing consistently. Though remember in the off season we may not be fishing as much or we may be targeting other things.

We’re into August and boy has the summer been a complete turnaround on the tarpon fishing front compared to the early season this year! March/April was one of the toughest early season bites I’ve seen in recent years. Hard to say what it was but the fish were just not happy and the numbers weren’t what we normally expect to see. Though by late April I found some fish in the backcountry and haven’t looked back. We’ve had pretty good success back there the last few months, and especially in July the fishing has been red hot! Lately though the local tarpon bite has been good too especially on the evening half day trips. The team at Islamorada Tarpon Fishing is ready to take you give us a shout!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

July 14, 2015 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Uncategorized

9/9/2025 September Tarpon update!

Got out last week with Mike and Barbara for some tarpon action. We actually decided to try and focus more on snook which I’ve been having some luck lately with some of the big ones. So we did that early on and weren’t really hitting the snook so great – we missed one bite and then hooked one that we got to the boat but pulled the hook before we could net it! I just decided to put the tarpon rods out while we were sitting there as I’ve caught tarpon just sitting on that spot before while snook fishing. Sure enough we ended up going 3 for 3 on little tarpon so it made our day for sure! I wasn’t seeing too many otherwise though we had marked a handful while we were driving around there so it was a welcome surprise. Barbara ended up catching another juvenile tarpon while we were throwing pinfish in the creeks for snook so it was just a tarpon kind of day for us while we were really going for snook! Other than that I have not done a whole lot of tarpon fishing as mentioned we’ve been getting good shots on those big snook though when conditions are right. However if you are looking to go tarpon fishing it is definitely still a good possibility. Baits been fairly consistent to get and while I haven’t seen big hordes of fish like we were seeing a month ago and in July, the ones that are around are happy and as we get into October we’ll likely see another good push of them as it starts to cool off up north and we get the fall bait run going on. Otherwise we’ve had nice weather overall a few showers and rain storms that have been finding us off & on, but we’ve been able to fish around them every time and only gotten wet a couple times. So far storms have held off hopefully that continues we have another couple months to go though.

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

September 16, 2025 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Rick Stanczyk September Fishing

8/5/2025 Evening Tarpon fishing in the Florida Keys in August

Capt. Trent has been on a tear lately with the tarpon on the evening trips! Summer time yields some great opportunities for resident fish and right now they are literally just minutes away from the dock. Very little pressure in July and August especially in that evening fishing window you’re often the only boat out there. Spawning is over and the fish are packing in calories and much less finicky as they sometimes can be months earlier. Not that that is always a guarantee but seems to be the case as of late! Also another plus is often taking the pressure of finding bait out of the equation as we are able to source bait at the dock that is available almost every day from the other boats coming in. So we had a last minute trip last night that was booked the day before. Capt. Trent got them out at 4:00 pm and they did the tarpon thing and it was game on from the get-go. All throughout the year but especially in July and August we use a ‘dead bait’ approach to catching tarpon. Usually a chunk of some kind of meat on the hook and we either drift those baits to them or set them out with a sliding sinker. We fish known areas where tarpon congregate but with the warm, calm summer waters we often are looking for them rolling on the surface or with our fish finders. So on the trip they ended up catching six tarpon and jumped off a couple more! Medium to larger size fish too in the 50 to 100 lb range. Now this fishery can be good all the way through October. If you’re thinking about it drop me an email and we can discuss.

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

August 6, 2025 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk August Fishing Trentin Leary

8/2/25 Red hot evening tarpon bite in Islamorada in August!

Capt. Trent as well as Capt. Steve have been getting out lately on some evening tarpon trips here in Islamorada. The fishing has been nothing short of phenomenal lately… Trent had 5 a few nights ago and 6 last night! Packs of resident fish are hungry and there has been very little pressure on them in the evenings so it’s been good! Even with lobster mini season going on which is normally a time you don’t want to be fishing locally they’ve been chewing. Great to see especially after we had such a tougher early tarpon season this year in March/April. Everything just getting much better later this season but we’ll take it. I myself was in the backcountry again tarpon fishing today and it was good too we ended up catching 4 and jumping off several others along with some big sharks. So if you want to do a half day trip those evening 4pm to 8pm slots are a good bet. The boys have access to bait which they can get earlier in the day, and that is often the tough thing to get for trips this time of year. Shoot me an email if you are interested in going or I have full day slots available for the backcountry option too! Or you can book now on the website.

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