Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Fishing Islamorada

2026 Season is open, book your fishing trip today!

Welcome to the home of Capt. Rick Stanczyk’s Fishing Islamorada. Here you can read our latest Islamorada fishing reports. Capt. Rick Stanczyk is a 2nd generation fishing captain out of Islamorada, Florida. His family owns & operates the world famous Bud n’ Mary’s Marina. Rick has grown up fishing all his life in the Keys, and has focused on tarpon for much of his guiding career for the last 17 years. Though we catch plenty of other species while fishing in the Islamorada backcountry. Rick has put together a talented team of guides who all work in tandem with him providing excellent charter service! They share fishing intel, catching bait together, and keep the boats operating properly. Having that kind of team around you helps make for much more productive fishing, especially when things get challenging. Capt. Rick is fishing a limited schedule for 2026 season (5 days a week on my new boat) and Capt. Stephen Byrd is running his other Contender full time. Capt. Trentin Leary is running the 20′ SeaCraft Bay Boat now and does a great job as well! This was the boat that Rick started his guiding career in and is an excellent boat! If you have a dream of catching & mounting a trophy fish please email to get your dates locked in – Rick will try extra hard to get you on his personal schedule if you are going to mount a trophy fish.

Book now! We’re now partnered with Vally to take online bookings!

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

For updated tarpon fishing reports, look at http://www.islamoradatarpon.com

January 29, 2017 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Uncategorized

1/31/26 End of January Florida Keys Backcountry Fishing Report

January is almost over and winter time has really kicked into full effect! We’ve had several cold fronts and this coming weekend we may have the coldest weather we’ve had in 15 years… forecast to get down into the 30s possibly in the keys! Hopefully that won’t cause any fish kills but it’ll definitely be chilly and we have some more cold on the way after that too. It should yield some good backcountry opportunities next week after the front passes and things calm down. Speaking of which we’ve had those conditions a few times recently and have really caught some good fish. Yesterday I had Dan and Zack out and we got into a red hot snook bite first thing in the morning. With 59 degree temperatures I didn’t know if it would be going off right from the start but he fish seem to be well adjusted, so I’m hopeful this next front won’t do anything too crazy too ’em. Later on yesterday we got into some larger snook and black drum, the boys each landed a nice big snook and Dan got a big drum and a nice big tripletail too. A few days before I had my dad and our friend Ron out and it was a colder day right after the last front had blown in. The bite wasn’t as red hot but we did manage a few nice snook and a good black drum. I’m sure if we would’ve fished a little longer into the later mid day time it wouldn’t gotten better as that day the fish weren’t quite as adjusted to the cold. Last week I also had my dad and Ron out and we got into some better fishing catching several nice size black drums, a couple big tripletails, a large snook, and my dad got a monster 30lb redfish! February will be here soon and I’m thinking it’ll be a little slower start to tarpon season this year with these cold fronts that keep rolling in. That may not be a bad thing as sometimes things get going very early and then it often seems May/June can get a little slower. But if things hold off until late February I think that will help the overall season. We should still have good opportunities for snook, redfish, drum, mackerel, cobia, and more with the cooler water temps however. The calendar is starting to really fill in but we have some days available in February still so if you want to get out on the water, give us a shout and we’ll let you know what’s going on. You can book on-line here or just shoot me an email to discuss any questions you may have.

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

January 31, 2026 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Backcountry Fishing Reports

Late December 2025 Fishing Report

December 29, 2025 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Fishing Videos

Christmas Week hammering big redfish in Islamorada!

Got out the day after Christmas with my dad and our good friend Ron Modra. It was a gorgeous day with light north winds and low 70 degree temperatures. The whole week looks very nice and that is a plus as it is always a busy week here in the Keys. We left out early of Bud n’ Mary’s around 6 AM. We were light on bait as the pinfish we normally like to use had been a little difficult to catch as of late. With the fluctuating water temperatures they aren’t always super abundant where we normally fish. Though luckily I had about 30 penned up in a cage that were nice and lively and we had some decent shrimp the day before. The tide was just starting to trickle out in the backcountry and we stopped in an area where I’d caught some of these big redfish before, though I hadn’t seen much there in months. We pulled in and all of a sudden my sonar lit up like a christmas tree! Swarms of big fish swimming everywhere! Ron cast in before I could even get the trolling motor down and he hooked up instantly! It was a monster 25 lb bull redfish and we could even see more chasing that fish up. We proceeded to catch another 4 or 5 in the next 30 minutes, even a double header for my dad and Ron. The type of day we dream about! And the best thing – no sharks chasing them around or eating them! They ate shrimp and pinfish it didn’t seem to matter much. After that things slowed down and we checked a few other spots. We marked a few fish on a couple of those spots but no bite. Then we found another spot with similar markings of fish and we hooked up again. Nice redfish for pops but this time a shark came up and grabbed it after about 20 seconds… Ron hooked another and same thing happened so we decided to leave that spot alone. Sad to see but such is life these days with the sharks. After that it was fairly quiet but that first 30 minutes more than made the day. While this doesn’t happen every day it is definitely a possibility and you don’t know if you don’ go! January is often my best month for monster redfish and drum with those cooler water temperatures. If you want to give it a shot give me a call.

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

December 26, 2025 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Backcountry Fishing Reports

Late November Fishing Report with Capt. Steve!

Well we’re still in the midst of off season so it’s been a little slow business wise here. Not getting out a whole lot but between the 3 of us we’ve been fishing a handful of days a week. Capt. Steve got out after Thanksgiving last week a few days and reported a good mixed bag of action. He had plenty of action in the near gulf with the spanish mackerel which is always a winter time favorite. We’ve had a couple of early season cold fronts which definitely helps that fishery out so that’s been a great option for those looking for action and a good fight on light tackle. Mixed in out there you can also find some snapper, grouper, and cobia – which they found all of those as well! They also had some redfish, snook, and a baby tarpon in the everglades. Just about everything you could hope for fishing in those areas! Can’t say for sure but they’re forecasting a bit more cold weather this winter though that isn’t necessarily a bad thing for us. I always look forward to shots at some of the larger black drum, snook, and redfish that the pushes of cold weather bring down to us. In fact I a couple of nice size bull redfish a couple weeks ago after the first official cold front of the season. But anything is possible here in the Florida Keys with the fishing but weather will always dictate what’s best. If you want to get out give us a shout you can book a trip online or shoot me an email and we’ll get you hooked up.

P.S. I’m also fishing some personally after Christmas to New Years which is always a super busy time. If you want to get out on the water with me on the new 23 Contender let me know!

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

December 2, 2025 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Backcountry Fishing Reports Fishing Reports

October Fishing with Capt. Stephen in islamorada!

Capt. Stephen Byrd got out for a couple of days earlier this week on the 25 Contender Bay. October is here and we’re starting to feel the fall effect – dryer air and some more northeasterly winds. Lots of bait being pushed down with tons of mullet around as well as pilchards and other things. Makes getting bait easy for now! Fishing was decent for him in the backcountry he had a couple of full days back there. The bite wasn’t super red hot anywhere but he was able to consistently pick fish in many of the usual spots. With October also comes higher water levels with the king tides so some areas we normally dont fish are more accessible. He had action with snook, redfish, trout, and several goliath groupers! They got a large 37″ snook offshore which was a pleasant surprise. They also mounted one of the goliath groupers they got one day which will be a beautiful wall piece for somebody. Fishing around the bridges on one of the mornings they also got a juvenile permit which was cool! There have been a few tarpon around lately but nothing crazy – some years we get a good push in October with all that bait that shows up, however as of now I would say its mediocre you definitely have a shot but might not be red hot fishing where you catch several. Though of course that can change – it’s fishing – and if its stays fairly warm we may still have some tarpon around in November/December.

October is starting to get a little busy for us with fishing. Capt. Steve does have a few days open however and I have some days open myself too. Capt. Trent will be back in town near the end of the month and starting to roll again too. If you want to book a trip give me a shout and we can let you know whats going on.

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