Latest Fishing Reports - Page 4 of 350 - Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

3rd week of May Keys Tarpon Fishing Report

Just wrapped up my three days of fishing for this week. On Monday 5/20/25 I had Ray down with his buddy Scott. We nearly got weathered out… massive thunderstorms starting blowing up around 5 AM and even knocked power out in Islamorada for a couple of hours. We had a little window to get out around 8 AM after waiting and watching until 6 AM. We decided to go for it and made the best of it. We had to hide under the bridges for a little bit to avoid some showers but after that we were able to get good fishing in. We ended up getting one tarpon for Ray and then losing another one that wrapped us up in some structure under the bridge. After that things died down as the tide quit. We found a few fish in some other areas and cudas ate us up. Finally the rain opened up a little and we were able to fish another bridge and found some more fish in the last hour and got one more tarpon. None cooperative for pics but glad to have gotten a couple on a tough condition day.

Yesterday the weather was much nicer but maybe a little too nice! It got slick calm and we saw tons of tarpon around the big bridge. I wasn’t able to get there the day before due to weather so i was hoping the fish would be nice and happy since they had the previous day off! Tarpon were rolling everywhere but they weren’t responding super great. We were able to catch one after a few moves early on for Brian that we got good pictures of. Then we went several hours without another bite! Looked good and we were in fish the whole time but again they were being finicky. Finally we got one more before the tide quit thankfully. After that we ran back up near Islamorada and fished one of the other bridges. We grinded and fished a couple more hours, and were able to catch one more tarpon and jumped off another. So all in all not a bad day by any means to get 3 tarpon but we did have to work hard for our 4 bites.

Today I had Jack and Brandon and I was readying myself for it to be a grind again. Though we had a tiny bit of east breeze and that might’ve made all the difference! Today the tarpon pulled us out of the boat I think we had over 10 bites and ‘landed’ 6 or so. We got one nice one up for pictures of Jack. Brandon had several nearly rolled over but they kept popping off when we tried to really get them submitted. We even had one fish drag us up near conch key into a small canal that luckily he turned and swam out of because we couldn’t of chased him up in there! Anyways good to have a big number day again after a few slower days.

Tarpon fishing is still in full swing here in May. Decent numbers of fish around and I think we’ll have good fishing into June. I don’t have much left for ‘season’ but summer time is still a great time to fish in July so give me a shout if you want to get out then. Of course Capt. Stephen and Capt. Trent have availability in June as well still especially if you want to do an evening tarpon trip or something like that.

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

May 22, 2024 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk May Fishing Rick Stanczyk

5/17/2024 Mid May Tarpon in the Florida Keys

Got out with return customer Howard and his buddies Brian and Ed today. I normally don’t fish Fridays but we were able to make an exception today. Had pretty favorable conditions light winds and a little bit of good incoming tide early on for the first hour or so with leavin the dock early. I had bait from a couple of days ago we were able to catch and luckily many of them stayed nice and lively which was surprising for 2 days in the heat we’re experiencing now. Fishing was good to us we found some good groups of fish early on and got a couple of bites our first two stops. Landed a big 100 lb fish that we nearly got boatside but broke off on the leader while trying to roller her over. Then we got a smaller fish around 60 lbs up for good pics. After that the tide quit and a good fleet of boats had shown up. We looked around and found a few small groups of fish but not much action out of them. Once the tide got rolling we didn’t see a whole lot more and lots of boats were in one area that got very congested. We decided to run back near where we had started and sure enough there were a good amount of tarpon there and no other boats. We were able to jump around and hooked five or six more fish and landed 3 more, getting another couple up for good pictures too! So really turned on for us and was perfect after most the boats had left the area.

Fishing still seems pretty good not quite as many fish in the area I’ve been fishing the last couple of months but still a decent amount. I have heard some new fish have shown up some other areas too which is good to hear. Hoping June stays productive for us… so far as so good! July will be just around the corner and we often get some good summer time fishing for smaller resident tarpon in the 20 to 60 lb range. If you are wanting to get out later this summer give me a shout and we’ll get it on the books!

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

May 17, 2024 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk May Fishing Rick Stanczyk

Tarpon fishing report early May in the Florida Keys

Just wrapped up another great week of islamorada tarpon fishing in May here. We had fabulous weather… it’s really stabilized for May which is nice and again the forecast still looking great in the 10-day range. Still good numbers of fish around too. We had a tournament going on last week and it was pretty busy on the water most of this week as well. Some days competing with 30+ boats down around the bridge. Though we still had good fishing overall which was great! I think we had 4-6 fish ‘technically’ landed each day this past week. A technical catch means getting them to the wind-on leader, basically the last 20 or so foot of the line. Though it was tough getting fish ‘rolled’ over which if you are wanting that glory picture is required. It really takes having the fish hooked in the proper place, having the ability to really put ample and correct pressure on the fish, and a little bit of luck to get that to happen. We are usually happy to be able to roll one fish over in a day for a good picture especially when fishing at the bridges as there is a lot that can go wrong there. But if it easy it wouldn’t be as satisfying! Anyways we had good incoming tide on our morning this past week. The bite was pretty good through that incoming, and then again on the fall in the early afternoon they rallied again. So consistent fishing through both tides. I will say after the tournament was over the fish did seem to settle down a little… we had a couple days last week where they were just acting crazy and you could tell the pressure had an effect on them… really making crazy runs through the bridge at high speed, doing figure 8s, etc… So next week should be good fishing I imagine. I did have a cancellation and could go either May 14 or 15 if someone is looking to go. June I have a few dates left as well and of course Capt. Stephen and Capt. Trent have availability as well. Those night trips are often a good bet in June as it starts to get into the heat of summer, being out in the early evening is just a nice time to be on the water and the bite often turns on near sunset.

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