Latest Fishing Reports - Page 3 of 350 - Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Mid June Tarpon Fishing Report

Well I had a few extra days off this week so not fishing a bunch but I did fish Monday with H and Sebastian. The forecast this week looked very wet we had a lot of southwesterly winds and heavy chances of rain. However Monday was very nice and to be honest even Tuesday and Wednesday were not bad and totally fishable. Some scattered rain but very avoidable and honestly the rain will probably be a good thing to help cool the water temperatures and drop salinity in the bay. Anyways on Monday we decided to start fishing near home around the bridges. I was thinking about running into the backcountry where we had found a bunch of tarpon last week, though that southwest wind direction usually isn’t very good for back there. Even though it was only blowing 10 mph it just seems to kind of shut them down. So we hit the bridges and we had a good start. Both H and Sebastian got to catch a tarpon and got both of them to the hand for pictures. After that the tide quit and we decided to try our luck running out back… but we didn’t run where I was thinking previously we tried some other channels back there. Sure enough there were a few tarpon in them which was good to see. Not tons but a handful… we jumped around once and the 2nd stop we got a bite and caught another one. Then we moved one more time and had another one jump off. After that we had a couple of sharks and then decided to run back towards home to try again. Sure enough we had a good bite on the first stop back around the bridges but we pulled the hooks on it right away. After that we moved a few times and had some action with a nice cuda and couple other things we missed… one of which may have been another tarpon but can’t say for sure. So anyways we definitely had 5 bites or possibly more and landed 3. Not too shabby for the conditions we had. I know Capt. Stephen has had some decent luck with tarpon the last couple of days too even with the continued southwesterly winds. He’s stayed local since the rain had been worse in the backcountry. Though looks like by the weekend it’s suppose to get nicer and next week we will have a little bit of wind but more easterly which shouldn’t be a bad thing. That backcountry tarpon fishing hopefully will light up again. As far as bait goes we’ve still been able to catch mullet fairly consistently so that is good. I’ve got a few days next week and then we’ll be out of town the last week of June until July 8th… thought Capt. Steve and Capt. Trent are both available if you are looking to get out there.

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

June 12, 2024 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk June Fishing Rick Stanczyk

Early June Tarpon Fishing Report in Islamorada 2024

Just wrapped up another 3 days of fishing here in islamorada for tarpon in June. We had a good week again, little breeze on Monday and Tuesday which made it comfortable at least, and Wednesday was fairly calm. Monday and Tuesday we stuck to the bridges as we’ve been doing the last couple of months. Still a decent number of fish around but you are having to put a little work in, and not always productive all through the day. The early mornings have been most consistently productive… both days we were able to get several bites in the first hour and land a handful of fish. Though after that initial rally once the sun is up it took some grinding. Monday we were able to get a few more bites after the initial early rally, and then at the end of the day once the tide started falling and water dirtied up we had more bites and caught a couple more tarpon. Very similar fishing on Tuesday though after that early morning rally, it was several hours without much of anything aside from a few nurse sharks, mutton snappers, and cudas. Then same thing the last hour and a half when the tide fell we had 4 more good bites and landed a couple more tarpon. I would say we had 8 tarpon bites Monday and 7 on Tuesday so that is still decent fishing. Wednesday we decided to mix it up and fished the bridges early which were good to us – we were able to get two nice tarpon up to the hand in the first hour and get some nice pictures. After that we ran into the backcountry as I heard some reports there was some tarpon showing up back there. This typically happens sometime in the summer as many of the large migrating fish move north. Some years it’s later in the summer but they were there really good now so that is great to see. We ended up catching 9 more tarpon for a total of 11 on the day, including 4 ‘double header’ hookups. It was just as good as fishing gets for tarpon. Now I can’t say what will happen next week but it was very good to see those numbers of fish, and typically now the fishing pressure is much less through the summer. So I think it’s going to be good for us later in june and july… just getting bait sometimes can become the tricky thing. But we still have a decent little school of bait we’ve been able to work to get us through and that should get better once we get more into summer and the mullet show up in the backcountry more. Back at it next week!

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

June 5, 2024 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk June Fishing Rick Stanczyk

End of May Tarpon Update

Got out last week for a couple of days… we fished Monday and Tuesday. It’s gotten much more feeling like summer as of late… water temps are up in the 88 degree range and the water is getting that green summer time look. But still a decent number of tarpon around not as many as a few weeks ago. But we are seeing some fish closer to Islamorada which is nice. On Monday I had Thomas and crew and we had a decent day catching four tarpon, three of which we got boatside for pictures they were nice and cooperative for that! We got a couple early on right off the bat. Then we had some misses and it slowed down a little. We ended up jumping a couple fish again before moving up closer towards Islamorad to fish. Then we finished the day with a couple more tarpon a nice 30 lber and then a large 100 lber! Great way to end the day. On Tuesday I had Peter and crew and fishing was very similar. We had one nice 80 lb fish right off the bat that dragged us for over a mile! We had good pressure on the fish too but it was just hooked right in the top lip and hard to get to roll over or cooperate… but we finally did with some patience and proper pressure. After that we had another fish we got leader on that broke us off in the bridge. Similar as the previous day things slowed down a little but we had a few more bites, missing some and losing one in the bridge again. Then we made the same move up to Islamorada when the tide changed and once again we ended up catching another small fish and then a large fish. Only the one in the morning was cooperative for the boatside pics and leader releases on the rest. But both days I think 7 or 8 bites so still decent fishing for the end of May.

I’ll be back at it this upcoming week starting in June. Bait has still been around though not as prevalent as it was. June can get tricky with bait sometimes but I’m hoping the little honey hole we have keeps holding some mullet for a few more weeks! I’m booked out for June though Capt. Trent and Capt. Steve have some dates available. Capt. Steve actually got a SLAM today – tarpon, bonefish, and permit, with some of my oldest customers which was pretty cool. Trent has also had good fishing they had lots of tarpon bites a couple of days ago and caught some muttons and groupers as well.

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