Well if you’ve been keeping up with my fishing reports on my other website (islamoradatarpon.com) you’ll know were in the midst of prime tarpon season! This is all I myself do this time of year these days and I keep that site regularly updated with weekly reports of my activity. This year the tarpon fishing has been good overall. We had a slow start with some colder weather in February, but March it got right and we had several good weeks of fishing in the everglades backcountry for migratory tarpon. Since the first week of April everything has been more local in the Keys with the bridges loading up with big tarpon. We’ve had good fishing since then and if there is one thing I can say about it, it’s been consistent. Most days have yielded 6-8 bites on average, with 3 or 4 fish landed. That means we get them ‘on the leader’ not always laid up next to the boat where they will take a nice picture! Getting a picture with a silver king is a whole other battle though we often get a cooperative one during the day. Tarpon will be my main thing going through into June and then we’ll start mixing things up a little more in the backcountry for the summer time. July, August, and even September & October can still have great opportunities for tarpon. Last year September was a really good month for me fishing in the backcountry for tarpon. Also snook fishing in the summer and fall is usually a good bet. It’s not super busy then and if you are wanting to come down in the summer and fall, drop me a line we can get something on the books. Other than tarpon right now, Capt. Stephen and Capt. Trent who run my other boats have been getting into a good mix of fish. There has been a decent number of local permit the last month around the bridges and channels, and the guys have had good luck with that. Bonefish fishing has been really good this spring and hopefully will continue into the summer as well. That means opportunities at SLAMS for lucky anglers. Capt. Trent and Capt. Steve are also still available for evening tarpon trips which are a good bet in June and July. You really get the place to yourself as business starts to slow down and being out there from 4pm to 8pm is a nice time of day, with sunset usually bringing productive fishing if it doesn’t happen earlier for you. Again give me a shout if you want to get a trip booked, school will be out before you know it!
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina
