Latest Fishing Reports - Page 9 of 353 - Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

4/2/24 April Bridge Bite turns on for Tarpon!

Got out with Zack and Connor today for some tarpon fishing. Caught bait yesterday so we had plenty, including some good live ones that lived well overnight. They were doing the ‘spins’ which we’ve been seeing bait do this year… just weirdly spinning around when they get stressed. But otherwise they seem to be alright. Some kind of neurotoxin or something I think. We fished the bridges as we saw a lot of tarpon around them last week though they didn’t bite all that well then. Today was much better though. We had weak falling tide late morning so I thought it might be kinda tough fishing, but sure enough they bit well from the get go even with last of the incoming tide slacking up. We hooked a fish we lost, jumped one off, then caught one that unfortunately proceeded to get eaten by a 500 lb hammerhead! The hammerhead bumped our trolling motor hard and broke our prop! Which was kind of funny because last week I had a prop break on the trolling motor randomly and I think that’s only the 2nd time that’s happened. I was going to put the anchor out after that but I decided to just run back in and get a spare prop off our other motor since the tide was slacking up anyways. Sure enough we got back and the tide was just starting to fall good. We got bit right away again and pulled off a fish, then jumped around a few times and then boom boom boom we caught another fish, pulled another one off, then caught one more – those last two we got up to the boat for good pictures. Anyways good day we landed 3 fish and had 4 or 5 others on. Hopefully fishing stays like that I’ll be back at it tomorrow so we’ll see!

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

April 2, 2024 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk April Fishing Rick Stanczyk

3/30/24 Late March Tarpon Update

March is almost over and we’ve been in ‘tarpon’ mode here for about a month or so now. The last week the tarpon fishing got a little tougher after some good fishing earlier this month. We had the full moon here earlier in the week which also coincided with a late ‘cool’ front and some heavy winds. Tuesday and Wednesday I fished and it was a bit of a struggle. We had bait that we caught over the previous weekend for our Tuesday trip. Derek fished with me in hopes of landing his first tarpon and we had howling south/southeast winds that day 20 knots. We found a lot of fish down at the bridges but they weren’t too cooperative for us unfortunately. We grinded at it for a couple hours before finally hooking a fish, which we fought for a few minutes but it got us into the bridge. We ended up sticking it out there because we continued seeing a good amount of tarpon but just no more action out of them, though we did catch some big jacks, bluefish, and nurse sharks. The next day (Wednesday) i got out with return customer Ashley and his family. We decided to go check out the backcountry because the wind had laid off slightly and I was hoping there would still have been some fish back there. Nobody had been back there recently due to all the wind. We didn’t see much for tarpon back there though but we did catch a cool tiger shark right off the bat along with a big blacktip shark. Then we grinded for tarpon but we didn’t really see much nor did we mark much back there – really seemed like the major body of them had moved on. That usually happens sometime in early April but with the mentioned full moon and weather maybe they’re done with early this year back there. Anyways we decided to book it back to Islamorada and try some other bridges and sure enough there was a decent body of tarpon around there and the wind laid out pretty nice. It looked pretty with nice water and sure enough our first stop we hooked a nice 40 lb tarpon that we got the leader on quickly, however a 300 lb bullshark came up and tried to snatch it and we had to break it off to give it a chance to escape! After that I thought we’d get another bite but again the tarpon seemed to not be too happy. Those are the only two days I fished last week but Capt. Steve has been out the last couple of days, and I know they said they had a tarpon on each day of the last two days – losing one and catching one. They also did some rod bending with some trout, snappers, and got a nice snook around the bridges while baitfishing. Capt. Stephen did say the bait was getting easier as that seemed really tough around that full moon earlier in the week too, so that’s a good sign. And I expect the tarpon bite will get better too – I always tell people booking in advance try to avoid right around the full moon if possible as that often seems to be a tough time with the daytime fishing. Though of course sometimes that’s just when you are here and can go so we always try our best regardless. I’ll be back to fishing this week and the team has some days open through the next couple of months. If you want to get out give me a shout!

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

3/23/24 March rolls on… so do the Islamorada Tarpon!

Well I’ve been off for spring break myself with my kids… but Capt. Trent has been on the tarpon consistently the last week! They had a huge day a couple days ago landing 5 tarpon fishing locally around Islamorada. That’s great news – the tarpon are starting to move in heavily around the local bridges and channels now. Most the fishing I’ve been doing has been back in the everglades which is where they often show up first in the early part of the season. That is usually February and March. Often by April that starts to fizzle out but that is when the local bridge fishing gets very good. The nice thing now is half day trips are must most consistently do-able. And that also means evening trips are a good bet! Trent has done a few evenings in the last week and had good fishing too! The 4pm to 8pm window is great as there is less pressure on the water and as it gets closer to sunset the bite often turns on. We have availability for many evening through April and May, and you can often book your trip more short notice so if you are here and see the weather looks good for the next few days, you can cherry pick your conditions somewhat! I’m back to fishing this week and will have more daily reports. But if you want to book something in April and May give me a shout as both Capt. Steve and Capt. Trent still have some availability.

P.S. The tarpon pictured with Capt. Trent was under 40 inches so allowed to be removed from the water for a picture. We do not remove larger tarpon from the water as it is illegal.

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