Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Well tarpon season we can say is officially at a close.  While we still catch some tarpon through the winter here in Islamorada, it’s very hit & miss and especially not good as the water temperatures drop in the 70 degree and below range.  But usually by February we are starting to target the elusive silver king again.  This year of course was a bit mixed up dur to COVID during our peak of tarpon season.  Though fishing was relatively good during that time frame the few times I got out and early season February/March was pretty good as well.  The summer July through September I’ll say was fair overall, and October was not very good for tarpon this year.  Every year is different and we are lucky to have a good 9 months of the year to have the possibility of good tarpon fishing.  But for the next few months the everglades will be home to plenty of snook, redfish, drum, sheepshead, trout, and more.  I’m still chartering regularly but more focused on that fishing.  You can check out my other website http://www.fishingislamorada.com for more updated reports on that, or of course our YouTube channel for great fishing videos.

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

Got out with Carl and Jeff today for a quick 3/4 day trip.  We blacked out the cooler with nice mullet yesterday… nice thing this time of year I’m not fishing every day, so I often try to catch bait on my days off so I’m well prepared.  The fall bait run has started and at least this week there have been plenty of mullet around so that has been easy.  We looked in a few spots early for tarpon and actually didn’t see a whole lot.  So we went snook fishing for an hour and crushed the snook catching about 3 dozen or so.  Then we went looking for more tarpon and checked another area I hadn’t fished in the last few weeks for them but was good earlier this month.  Sure enough there were some fish there, we set up and after about 20 minutes or so, Carl was hooked up to a nice 50 lb tarpon.  After that the boys were getting a little hungry we fished another 20 minutes but we headed back in about 30 minutes early.  Probably could’ve scratched another bite out of we really wanted to but they were plenty happy.  Anyways October is right around the corner and can still be a great month for tarpon.  I’ve got some open days throughout the month but I will say it’s filling in fairly quickly.  It’s truly one of my favorite months of the year to fish as fall isn’t quite so busy and with the bait runs and weather changes, it’s often very productive.  Give me a shout if you are interested in going out!

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

Well I haven’t been fishing a whole lot as we’re into September, our slowest month of the year for business.   But I did get out the last couple of days and the first day we tarpon fished for a bit of it.  Found a massive school of fish in one of the usual backcountry haunts…  We ended up catching three in about an hour – very good fishing!  Including one nice size 60ish lber.  Got some great video footage I put together which you can watch below, also including the rest of my fishing report from the second day.  Right now not much going on until the end of this week, and I have a few days open at the end of the month.  The beginning of October is also fairly open for me though I start getting a bit busiest mid-october.  So if you are wanting to come on down, it’s a great time to fish!  I especially love October as we often get the fall bait run going and it can be some of the best fishing of the year.

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