Rick Stanczyk

Well March is almost over!  I’ve been fishing this week and last week we were away from Spring Break.  It was a good week to be away as I heard we had another couple of mild cold fronts which of course the tarpon did not care for.  Plus the traffic was insane as they were dealing with wildfires closing down the stretch coming into the Keys.  So I wasn’t sorry to miss dealing with all of that!  This week I fished Monday, Tuesday, and today (Thursday 3/27/2025).  The wind calmed down earlier in the week with a light east breeze so it got to be more ideal better conditions.  Monday we went out back and found a few fish in the backcountry but not the big numbers we normally expect.  It took a minute to find them as well they weren’t just jumping and flopping all over, I had to stop in a few spots and finally saw one roll and then we started seeing them on the machine.  We had a good hour we were in them and jumped a nice fish but he didn’t stay hooked.  Caught some sharks and then headed back towards Islamorada.  Near home we found some more fish in the local channels but no bites out of them and we had a pretty weak tide which didn’t help.  Tuesday we decided to just stay near town and we found some fish in the channels by home early on.  They did not respond but they were rolling around pretty good as it was slick calm.  We did catch some jacks and sharks.  After an hour or so we gave the bridges a try and there were some fish around there but they did not cooperate though we caught more jacks.  Then we tried near home again for the last hour and low and behold after the tide changed we did hook into 3 tarpon but unfortunately none of them stayed buttoned for us.  But kept our head in the game and got our shots which is all you can do.  So Thursday it was the exact opposite we had our 3 bites early in the first hour.  We caught one nice tarpon on a live bait to start the day.  Then we were about to leave that area but we marked a huge school of tarpon and I set up and got baits out fast.  Sure enough we hooked a double header!  But unfortunately one threw the hook immediately and the other we got wrapped up in a lobster ball and pulled the hook trying to dislodge it.  The rest of the day we tried the bridges again and got eaten by jacks and got a few sharks but that was it for the tarpon action.

I’m hopeful we’ll have a good april, may, and maybe june as it was a bit of a slow start with the tarpon this year.  Though maybe they haven’t been ‘beaten up’ too bad and will be happier later in the year.  You have to stay positive, right?  We’ll see…  April is around the corner and that traditionally starts the ‘prime time’ for tarpon here and I think as long as we don’t get any more cold fronts that should be the case.  I’ll be back at it next week if you want to book a trip check us out on Vally or shoot me an email!

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

Well we’re half way into March and in the midst of Spring Break!  It’s really busy and everybody’s fishing which is good for those that do it for a living, as we had a little slower than normal off season.  So what’s going on with fishing?  Well the tarpon bite unfortunately has been a little tough the last couple of weeks.  We’ve been a little spoiled in recent years with often epic early season fishing.  This year however things have been a little different.  There are plenty of fish showing up but they haven’t been responding as well as we’d like.  For one thing there had been a ton of pressure on them early on.  I know days even in February that were nicer we were seeing fleets of 20+ boats on the migratory fish which in years passed you never saw that many boats in February especially.  Also now we’re starting to have more late cold fronts which of course they’ve never liked.  Now with the fronts its tricky I’ve noticed the past few years a mild front even with the water temperature getting into the high 60s, the fishing could still be decent and you could have a shot at catching a few tarpon.  This year even on the ideal calm, nicer days you are grinding for a handful of bites to catch that.  And on the days with tougher winds directions (south/southwest), or where it’s gotten cold or what not, you are lucky to scratch out a bite or two.  So the early season bite this year has taken a lot of work and patience.  Now for those of you coming later in April, May, and even June this might be good news as the fish overall may not have been beaten up too much.  Also I’ve noticed many less boats in recent weeks as we’ve had those late cold fronts and I think with the bite being tough anyways many anglers are targeting different things.  So results from some of my recent trips, late February we had a great day on the 27th landing 3 tarpon.  Conditions were nice and calm that day and not too cold, but we did grind all day for 4 bites to catch those 3.  Though we did catch a double header after 3 hours without a sniff from a tarpon so that goes to show you just have to keep at it some days.  March 3 I had Cody out.  We had a bit of a northerly wind and cooler temperatures though not super cold.  The tarpon were out there in force early on and we saw lots of jumpers and rollers nearby where we set up.  We hooked a nice fish within the first 30 minutes that put on a great show and we were able to get up for good pictures.  I thought we’d of had more action after that but that was our only bite and we fished hard the next 4 hours or so.  But glad to have gotten that one!  Earlier this week on the 10th I had Irv out one of my regulars whose fished at Bud n’ Mary’s for decades and has had some very good fishing with me in the last 7 or 8 years.  Today unfortunately we had a prefrontal conditions with a stiff southwest breeze.  The tarpon were out there and showing decently well but were just totally unresponsive.  We were about the only boat out there and grinded hard for a few hours with only a couple sharks to show for it.  We decided to run back towards home and try some of the local channels.  Didn’t see a whole lot locally but we did find a few packs of fish.  No response out of them unfortunately we even had one we consistently marked next to the boat, but she just didn’t want to bite.  Now we had the front come in the next day and temperatures dropped back into the high 60s.  I looked for tarpon a few days ago and we never even saw them out there I think the hard winds and cool off blew them out offshore, so we ended up doing other stuff which was OK and actually caught a small juvenile tarpon while doing that.  So the following day I had Dave out and he really wanted tarpon so I told him it may be tough but he was game.  We found them offshore a little further out and had to put time in.  But after a few hours and a few sharks we hooked a monster near 200 lb fish that we chased for miles!  Lots of jump and erratic behavior and we had her boatside near rolled over for a pic but a shark came and made her nervous so when she bolted off I broke her off so she wouldn’t get eaten.  We got some good jump shots and such and Dave was thrilled and didn’t want the fish to die either.

So all in all there you have it… as mentioned it’s often been a grind but I never mind that I just like to explain to my customers what it may be like as there are no guarantees with tarpon especially.  But things should get much better as we get near April and the cold fronts stop or at least become less severe.  I’m out of town this coming week for Spring Break but will be back at it at the end of the month.  Hopefully thing will turn around by then.  If you want to get out fishing give me a shout, Capt. Trent and Capt. Steve have days available and are offering night trips some already too.

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