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 almost to February and that’s when we start catching some tarpon again somewhat consistently. There have been some around this January and we actually caught them on a few different occasions. The water was still pretty cold by general tarpon standards, in the mid 60 degree range. But we had a few flat calm, sunny days and the tarpon were out there flopping around and doing there spring-time thing. Anyways I feel as long as we get some warm, calm weather any time now they’ll likely be around. You just can’t bank on that though in January, but we should see more of it come February.

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

July 14, 2015 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Uncategorized

2/18/25 February Tarpon Fishing in Islamorada update

Well last week we fished three days for tarpon out back. On Monday we had nice northeasterly wind and I had Jan out. We hooked a half dozen tarpon and landed 3 big ones, getting one up to the boat for pictures! He was super excited and we put that big one on the wall for him with Grays Taxidermy. Great day overall. Now the following day the wind swung around and was blowing hard out of the south… a good 20 mph and it was ‘full moon’ too. It was like somebody flipped the switch and it was rough out there and the tarpon were not happy. We grinded hard for 4 hours and never had a bite out of the tarpon. Not sure if it was the wind, moon, or combination but they weren’t having it. Tried some pinfish too and no luck. We ended up jumping in the creeks and caught a handful of snook and redfish to at least make something happen. Two days after that it was still blowing south but only 10 mph so much nicer. We got out there and hooked 3 tarpon in the first 30 minutes or so. They all came off the hook unfortunately but at least they seemed to be biting right? Wrong. After that they did a complete shutdown again and we fished hard for several more hours only to catch a handful of sharks. We did pick a half a dozen snook at the end of the day at least to do something. I took the long weekend off and was back at it today on Tuesday. It was slick calm and I heard yesterday was decent fishing back there. Tons and tons of fish as far as you could see and they were literally bouncing off the boat. But again not biting great. I think the other 20 boats out there may have had something to do with it… I think they’ve been feeling the pressure. We kept at it and jumped around, moved a couple of miles away from the crowd, and low and behold we hooked a double header! Caught both fish though unfortunately one got sharked before we could get a picture and that ended that. We caught one more tarpon an hour or so later and then also got a nice 27 inch tripletail and a 35 inch bull redfish. So all in all a great day but had to work for those handful of tarpon bites. So lots of fish out there but not always easy but I think it’ll get better as conditions continue to stabilize and maybe once the fishing pressure lets up a little bit. Another front this weekend but not suppose to get cold just a little windy, I think that will give them a break out there and maybe lead to some better response! We’ve got days available if you are looking to fish give us a shout!

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

February 18, 2025 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk February Fishing Rick Stanczyk

2/7/2025 February Tarpon starting off with a bang!

Got out with my dad and his friend Pete along with Capt. Stephen who rode along to see what was happening. We planned to tarpon fish as the conditions over the last week have gotten right for some good early spring time fishing. That usually means lighter, warmer wind conditions and water temperatures. We had a nice 15 mph easterly breeze and water temps in the mid 70s. Steve was good enough to catch us some mullet the other day which are starting to show up thick as well. That’s often a good sign the tarpon fishing will start getting right too. So there were thousands of tarpon when we got out there – just jumping, rolling, and splashing all about. It really was incredible. We had periods where we could mark 20+ fish on the sonar… just pods after pods of them coming by. We fished our mullets as well as drifted with live pinfish and both worked pretty well. We caught two smaller fish in the 30-40 lb range and got one up for a picture. Then Pete caught a big 90 lber on the dead bait we fought for a while. He was also lucky enough to get a big bull redfish first thing in the morning. We hooked several other tarpon as well I think we had a good 7 or 8 bites for the day. About as good as you could ask for especially for the first week of February! Right now there are no cold fronts on the horizon so I’m sure those fish will keep doing there thing. And honestly I feel like with how many were back there in January when the water temps were still in the mid 60s, they may not care much if a front comes through unless it gets ridiculously cold. It’s not super busy yet though spring time starts to get that way so if you want to fish for tarpon and can make it down in the next couple of weeks, we have availability. Give us a shout and remember you can book online now through Vally!

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

February 7, 2025 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk February Fishing Rick Stanczyk

Mid January Tarpon? Yes in Islamorada!

What’s the shot at catching tarpon in January is a question I’m often asked. I always tell people it’s possible depending on conditions but likely not to be expected when you are booking a few weeks or more out. However if we have a streak of warm, calm weather it can happen any time. Last week we had a pretty hard cold front and water temps dropped down into the mid 50s, about as cold as it normally gets here. Though it got nicer over the weekend and today it was completely slick calm and near 80 degrees. Even though the water temps were still in the low to mid 60s (typically I would say too cold for tarpon), once the tide started coming in tarpon popped up all over the place. That warm radiating sun can do some funny things to the fish. They were even biting too we didn’t spend too much time messing with them but we caught a big 90 lber and then a smaller 15 lber later on. Now had you been here a week ago the chances I would’ve said were pretty slim. Though knowing it was slick calm this week I would say there’s much more of a chance. Unfortunately you never really can tell but you get a much better idea when the time gets closer and you have an accurate idea of what the weather is going to do. So you can keep that in the back of your mind and ultimately it’s best to just fish the conditions. Anyways I think we’ll have another day or so of this and then we get some more north wind and more cool weather after that so they’ll likely disappear again for a bit. But its only another month or so when we really start catching tarpon fairly regularly often in February, as long as there aren’t any cold fronts and that is more likely as you get further into the spring. We’ve got some open days now and its not too busy yet until we get close to mid february timeframe. If you want to get out give us a shout – we can give the tarpon a try if its feasible and if not theres usually other good options like snook, redfish, drum, and more!

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