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

2026 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.

February is here and we’ve just had a nice warm week of calm weather after some of the coldest weather we’ve seen in 15 years! Some early season tarpon have shown up and it looks like we’ll have some good windows of fishing them the next couple of weeks. Barring any late cold fronts it may be a great early season!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
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July 14, 2015 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Uncategorized

2/12/26 February tarpon season is officially on!

Well we are about a week out from the coldest stretch of weather we’ve seen here in the Keys in about 15 years! Last week temperatures got into the 40s and we had 50 degree water temps in the backcountry. Truly unbelievable and not a great recipe for tarpon fishing or really any fishing for that matter! However since then we’ve had a nice week of calm warm weather, and over the last few days tarpon have started to move back into some of the usual early season haunts. Water temps are still in the mid 60s which I would typically say it a little chilly for tarpon, but I think because it was so cold last week and we’ve had slick calm weather, they’re treating it like it’s early spring and showing up and getting active! We caught a nice tarpon yesterday with Tucker while we were fishing out in the everglades. We weren’t really targetting tarpon per se… we were jigging shrimp looking for some big drum and other winter time critters. Though our last cast of the day, a tarpon sure enough slurped it up and we got a nice 50 lber to the hand! Then today I had my dad and our buddy Bruce out. I actually had a tarpon trip booked and I checked in with my customers last week and explained it may not be ideal conditions for tarpon, being it had been so cold and water temperatures would still likely be a little chilly. They opted to cancel so I ended up taking my dad. Again we wern’t even really trying for tarpon we were looking for those big drum or possibly a snook, redfish, or cobia. We put a pinfish out and marked a few tarpon drifting by us. Sure enough dad picked up and casted towards one and we hooked up! He fought a nice 100 lber on light tackle and got it rolled over within about 30 minutes, truly an impressive feet for an 80 year old! Later on we hooked another one on the old shrimp and jig again too though that one jumped off after about a 10 minute battle. So anyways there are tarpon definitely starting to show up and from the looks of it, conditions should be staying favorable over the coming weekend into next week. So we may start having some consistent tarpon fishing. It’s still early season and anything can happen especially some late cold fronts, so I recommend being flexible with your fishing plans if you book in the next month. But for those looking to come down and enjoy some early season fishing, it’s time!

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

February 12, 2026 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk February Fishing Rick Stanczyk

10/23/2025 October Tarpon Fishing in the Florida Keys

We’re well into October and we’ve been having the fall bait run going on for the last few weeks here. Tarpon fishing hasn’t been red hot as it sometimes can get in October when we get those conditions but it’s been fair I’ll say. We had more numbers of tarpon around I feel in July and the later summer it’s been smaller groups though when you get in them you can still have decent fishing. Right now if you get in the areas with fish you can get some good windows but it’s often short lived and when conditions go south fishing can deteriorate quickly. But the last few trips I’ve had in the last couple of weeks we’ve had a tarpon bite or two about every day we’ve tried. Last week I had a regular customer out Randy and his family and we had one day we caught 3 tarpon and had a few more bites. Then the last three days I’ve fished we had action with baby tarpon in the creeks one day with several bites and landed one. Yesterday we focused more on slightly larger tarpon and jumped one in the morning, and then caught one in the afternoon. Today we were fishing for larger snook with my dad and ran into a good group of tarpon and ended up catching one on pinfish. We did see some more tarpon activity further up the coast where the mullet run was going on but we didn’t end up messing with them there. We have a good hard wind coming this weekend then next week it’s lightening up but will stay northerly but wont’ get real cold. That should continue to push bait down and fire up some tarpon that are here. This may continue right into early November obviously no guarantees but as long as water temps stay in the high 70s/80s tarpon are a possibility!

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

October 23, 2025 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk October Fishing Rick Stanczyk

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