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 the end of March! Spring break has been in full swing and we’ve been busy for sure. Unfortunately the tarpon bite has been a bit hit & miss this March with several late season cold fronts and lots of early season pressure on them… at least that’s what I’m blaming it on! Though now near the end of March water temperatures are approaching back near 80 degrees and we should be starting to get more into ‘prime time’ mode. As long as we don’t have any more cold fronts April should start to yield some better fishing. I’m also hopeful we’ll have a little more productive late May and June, as some years when February/March is really good it dies out by then, but maybe since it’s been a slower start it’ll be the opposite? One can hope! We’ll keep you updated as April rolls on but this is getting into our typical ‘best’ times of year.

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

July 14, 2015 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Uncategorized

6/13/25 Mid June Tarpon Update for Islamorada Florida Keys

June is near half way over and the tarpon fishing has been pretty good for us the last week. Summer time mode is on but we had good conditions overall this week as far as wind and weather went. We were on the full moon as of today I believe. Earlier this week I fished on Monday with Chris and his buddies. We had a nice day with conditions again, mostly incoming tide which should have been favorable. We found a decent amount of tarpon in the backcountry but they were not cooperating too well – maybe it was coming on to the full moon? We grinded hard but mostly just had shark bites. I moved around in several areas and we had tarpon in all of them that we looked. Not visually seeing a ton but marking them on the sonar. Finally near the end of the day we were in a pack of fish and I marked one off the bow (as we were fishing tide into the wind and the live sonar was facing forward towards our baits). Sure enough we marked a fish nosing into the bottom and I believe actually eating our bait, and a few seconds later he went airborne! Luckily we hooked the fish well and landed her.

Yesterday I had Gavin and Max out. Bait was difficult to come up with but luckily Capt. Trent hooked me up as he found some mullet the afternoon before in the backcountry. We left out early and did about the same routine as I had done a few days earlier. But today the tarpon were happier! We hooked a couple after about 45 minutes of fishing in the first place we stopped. Landed one and jumped the other off while we were fighting that one. But a good catch. Then we had several large lemon sharks and a bull shark. Moved around a few times and got into another pack of tarpon a little bit later. Sure enough we near hooked another double header and landed both fish. It was high fives all around and some good picture takers. After that things settled down. I ran further up the beach and saw a few more free jumpers which we tried to get lined up on but no love. But good to see there were definitely a good number of fish out there. I ran further and fished an area where I had caught some over slot snook a few weeks back and I knew there was tarpon there too. Low and behold we ended up marking a nice pack of fish and sure enough we caught 3 snook that were all near 20 lbs! Then we got a nice 70 lb tarpon at the end too! Just a magical day where things all came together.

So things are coming together nicely for a strong summer I feel like. Resident tarpon fishing should be a good bet now through October, and heck I feel like it’s going to be much better and more productive than our seasonal fishing was this year as March/April was tough fishing often struggling for a bite or two a day. I’ll be out of town for a couple weeks now but I’ve just opened some days in July for myself personally if anyone wants to go. I’m offering my off season rates so book while you can before it gets filled up. Capt. Trent and Capt. Steve will be available too. Hope to get you out there!

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

June 13, 2025 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk June Fishing Rick Stanczyk

6/6/2025 Early June Tarpon Fishing Update

We’re into June and it’s definitely summer time! We just had a day of torrential rain I think we got about 6 months worth of rain in 24 hours. I know they said Plantation Key had 8 inches which is wild. We needed it though and hopefully it will be a good thing for the fishing overall. So how’s the tarpon fishing been? Well it’s definitely improved overall compared to the slower April we had. I’ve been finding some good fish in the normal backcountry areas we fish and we had luck with them this week after the day of crazy rain, and a few days last week as well. Haven’t had a whole lot of opportuntities for good pictures as they’ve been a lot of smaller 15-30 lb fish, and just not staying on the hook well or jumping off next to the boat. But we had good action last week catching 3 for 6 one day, 1 for 3 another day, and the last day we only tried for the last hour and didn’t get a bite but we had plenty of action with sharks and snook earlier in the day. I definitely was mixing it up all those days and we had decent snook fishing in the mornings and did the tarpon for the latter part of the day. This past week I only fished Wednesday as we got rained out Tuesday and I had some cancellations, but we had the right tides much earlier in the day this week so we went out. The weather stayed nice for us and it was a little windy but we got on a good tarpon bite and landed 1 right off the bat. After that they didn’t wanna stay on the hook for us but we put another 5 in the air I think and also caught plenty of sharks including some hammers, lemons, and bulls. Capt. Stephen also reported decent fishing around the bridges landing a nice big fish and hooking another 4 or 5 as well. So tarpon fishing locally is still an option and the backcountry is looking like it’ll be decent earlier in the summer as well. Bait is fairly difficult to get right now there is still one commercial guy catching them and we’re getting them when we can. But that always gets harder this time of year. If you want to get a trip booked give us a shout we have openings! I’ll be out of town June 14 until a little after the 4th of July, but then I’ll be fishing some again the 2nd week of July. Hope to get you out there!

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

June 6, 2025 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk June Fishing Rick Stanczyk

5/16/2025 Mid May Florida Keys Tarpon Fishing Update

Well we’re into middle of May already can you believe it? Summer is definitely here now the winds seemed to lay down the last week or so and it’s gotten HOT! I’ve been on a pretty hot tarpon streak lately thankfully too after one of the toughest Aprils I’ve ever had. We’re still finding some fish deep in the backcountry and it’s been good to us. We’ve had to leave early to get there and it’s a bit of a run but it’s paid off. I had Jon and Dave for 3 days last week. Day 1 on Monday we got rained out in the AM but they asked if we could fish in the afternoon and I was able to make it happen. We stayed local though actually and it was a nice weather window. We caught a big 100 lb fish right off the bat in the local channels, she fought us hard for an hour and we got her boatside but she never gave up and eventually wrapped us up in the bridge. Then we jumped around and found a few more fish but they were uncooperative, but the last 15 minutes of the trip we had a few rolling around us and boom finally hooked another! A really wild fish that screamed out line and almost spooled us. Big fish too and looked like we were in for another long battle but we actually rolled this fish over in about 20 minutes which was cool and got good pictures. Great trip. Day 2 we ran deep in the backcountry like I was talking about and we had good action landing multiple tarpon and hooking plenty more. Day 3 we gave the tarpon a break and went snook fishing which was pretty good for us too. Thursday and Friday I had Gerald Stuart and his group from las vegas. We did the deep backcountry routine and it was really good. Thursday we landed 4 fish and had a few more in the air. Gerald caught a big one close to 100 lbs that we put on the wall with Grays Taxidermy. Then yesterday on Friday I had others from his group and we had similar fishing, jumping several small fish early on and then the guys each landed a tarpon including another big 120 lber and a few 30 lbers. Action all day we caught the last fish right before it was time to go in. So that deep backcountry option has been working, I’ve not fished back there much the last couple of years as we had tremendous bridge fishing but this year I’ve gone back to it. That is usually good through early June and then we’ll just see what’s goin on then. Sometimes the rest of the backcountry areas fill in with fish around flamingo, we’ll just have to see. There have been some fish in another area of the backcountry I know so maybe those will fill in a little more. Capt. Steve and Capt. Trent have been getting a few fish around the bridges still on the half day trips and evening trips and even full days, though often it’s a good bet to break it up and try some other stuff. As mentioned snook fishing is decent now and I know they’ve been getting some big snappers and other things too. Steve has had a couple of permit in the last week too. June is around the corner so if you are getting out of school and wanting to book a fishing trip give us a shout!

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