Rick Stanczyk Archives - Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

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

8/2/25 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

7/30/25 End of July Tarpon Report

Got out the last couple of days with Ross and Harper visiting from Dallas. Today was the first day of mini season too but thankfully we don’t have to deal with all of that in the Everglades where I like to fish! We had phenomenal fishing both days! Yesterday we started with tarpon which have been swarming in the backcountry the last several weeks. It was slick calm which is often ideal for that early morning window especially, and the tide was just starting out. The fish were balled up tight… we were marking groups or 15, 20, 30 or more sometimes! We got bit up and landed 1 and jumped several more. Sharks started to get us so we moved around. Eventually that early morning ‘golden hour’ came to an end but we had lots of bites though they weren’t staying buttoned very well. We moved offshore and found some more and jumped another tarpon out there but the little blacktips started to show up and drive us nuts. So we moved more and stumbled into another group of tarpon. Not big numbers and I didn’t think it was going to produce more than a bite for us, but these fish were happy! We ended up catching a couple more and jumped another 3 or 4. So all in all over 10 bites on the day which was spectacular! After that we jumped in the creeks and caught some finger mullets and went snookin’ which wasn’t red hot but was productive we caught 8 or so plus a few other things.

Day 2 we did a similar game plan and found the tarpon early on again. Not as ‘schooled up’ and there was a tiny bit of a breeze (which felt good at least). We had the last trickle of incoming tide. Sure enough we set up and hooked one in the first couple minutes that we landed so a good start! Ended up jumping a couple more and hooked into some massive sharks… hooked a triple header of sharks at one point! After that we moved and hooked into a nicer size tarpon that Ross caught about a 50 lber. After that things settled down and the sharks got active again. We looked in some other areas but didn’t see much more for tarpon and decided to go snookin’ again. That again was productive we had to work at it but caught some finger mullets again, and jumped around some different spots picking snook and small goliath groupers again. Did get one more small tarpon on a finger mullet too so that was cool.

So all in all some great fishing all around! July’s been hot and I have availability in August too which can still be good as can September. I think those resident tarpon will be here all summer with some days being better than others but that’s fishing. All I can say is it’s been a heck of a lot better than our early season fishing this year in March/April where we had just a tough start to tarpon season. But if you want to come any time the next few months we can often set something up short notice and somewhat cherry pick the conditions if you have a decent window to fish. Drop me a line or book now on Vally!