Fishing Reports

Well we’re getting closer to the years end and Christmas.  Its surprisingly gotten pretty busy for me lately before Christmas week which is a nice surprise as it’s been slow overall with business and the phone ringing.  But I’ve had a few regulars calling wanting to go and a few fill in trips as well.  We got out the last couple of days despite some hard 20-25mph winds and fishing was still pretty good.  The first day we hid in the creeks and caught snook, redfish, drum, sheepshead, and more on shrimp.  Good solid bite we had to move around but each time it yielded another 6-8 fish so it was active.  Nothing huge in there and it was warm but those fish should get a little better size when it cools off more.  Bugs werent terrible they got us in the first spot but after that they subsided.  We then went offshore and found a huge redfish and a couple good size black drum to put the cherry on top of the day!  Then yesterday I had my dad and our friend David Limroth out and we just focused on the big fish.  It was productive we found them in several areas though they weren’t biting super great.  We had to put some time in and try some different tactics but we managed a couple good black drum and a nice snook in one area.  Then we found some of those big redfish offshore and they weren’t very happy no bites in the first spot and we had them all around the boat according to the sonar.  Then the next spot we had a bite finally that we missed and then I ended up catching a nice 25 lb one plus we got another smaller black drum.  So all in all not bad to get a few of those big quality fish in a day is always good.  Looks like we have another cold front this weekend and hopefully we’ll get more in January.  January is one of my favorite times of year to fish for those large backcountry fish catching it after the cold fronts you get some opportunities you don’t get very often.  Of course when its blowing 30 or has just gotten incredibly cold it can be a bit of a bust, but if you catch it the next day when things just start to warm up or at the least try and time being back there later when things warm up slightly it can be some of the best fishing you ever see.  I’ve got days available so give me a shout and Capt. Trent and Capt. Stephen are of course available too!

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

Well finally getting back to fishing some it’s been a little slow the last couple of months.  Of course we had some late season hurricanes a month ago nothing that affected us majorly here but the west coast got hammered and it seemed to keep people away.  We did have some high sustained winds which would of made fishing difficult around those times though.  Now late November we are starting to get some real cold fronts we had one last week and then now this week its dropped back into the 60s here.  Personally as you may know I love fishing around the cold fronts you get some opportunities you dont get any other time and while its not always great and can take patience, we’ve been doing it long enough to give the best shot at making it happen.  Black drum, redfish, sheepshead all make themselves a little more known when the water temps dip into the 60s.  I got out yesterday with Mark and we fished the cape and got into a pretty good snook bite early on.  Not red hot but we caught them fairly early and as it warmed up it got better and better.  Nothing spectacular size wise but we probably caught a dozen or 15 or so and a nice redfish.  After an hour or two of that we tried some of the spots for the ‘big boys’ and were rewarded handsomely.  We found some good size reds out there and a handful of black drum too in the 8 to 15 lb range.  A few stops without a sniff and then the last place we stopped we got into some big donkey reds!  The first two we pulled the hooks on and broke off – heartbreakers!  They were pulling heavy drag and just not stopped.  Then we gave it an extra few minutes and we wound up catching a nice 15 lb red and then another that was probably 25 lbs!  Capt. Stephen also had some good fishing on the patch reefs this past weekend getting into some nice groupers out there as well as mangrove snapper and some big look downs at the bridge.  But on our day I was so glad we made it happen you always want to get at least one of those big ones when you have a shot at them.  Mark had an awesome time and will be back again soon.  I’m fishing again the next two days and then business is starting to tick up for sure we’ve got a few trips a week here through Christmas.

I’ll be fishing myself some personally the week after Christmas so if you want to get on the calender give me a shout, the 26th through the 31st is open.

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

Hadn’t gotten out much lately with the couple of hurricane scares we’ve had this month.  But we had a nice window now and it was time to get my new 23 contender out there and put some time on her.  The boat was AMAZING!  I am so happy with the layout it is very fishable and easy to work out of.  Rides just as good as the 25 in my opinion and has all the cool bells and whistles livescope, etc…  So we had a calm day light north breeze which is typically good for some of those big snook and such back there.  Also being October there is lots of bait around and life in general back there.  Got out with dad and Nick who works in the shop.  We marked some huge schools of what we thought were snook in the first area we fished.  Didn’t get any bites but then we started making some drifts and working the baits as we dragged along.  Sure enough we caught a decent one, and followed it up with a couple more on the next couple of drifts!  Really cool stuff and I swear there were thousands of them down there from what we could see on the sonar.  After that we hit a couple of other spots without much luck but then we got into a huge school of big redfish!  We caught a couple big donkeys that were in the 25 lb range, plus a couple of other good size snook.  Move again and got one more nice red in the next stop.  They just kept comin’ one of those days when you can do no wrong.  We then tried a few other spots on the way home one of them had some big sharks lurking and I could see some good fish too but they didn’t want to bite… I don’t blame them with the sharks around.  But then the last stop we made we caught a couple more big snook to finish up.  Awesome to see and yes its October which is often a good time to have a chance at those big bull redfish here.  Tarpon fishing should still be good for a few more weeks and lots of mullet around.  My favorite time of year to fish them baits easy, lots of fish, and very little pressure.  If you want to get out here in the next few weeks give me a shout I’ve got plenty of availability and am taking trips personally.  And the new boat is ready to rock!

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

Well September is almost officially over.  I haven’t been fishing a ton and Capt. Stephen and Capt. Trent both took good long vacations over the last couple of months.  We also got knicked by hurricane helene but luckily came out virtually unscathed.  I’m getting the boats together we’re almost finished totally redoing the seacraft with a new wiring job, new paint, and a new 200 HP yamaha.  So she’ll be all ready to go here in a couple of weeks for when Capt. Trent is back again.  And Capt. Stephens Contender we’ve done a little bit of maintenance on and it’ll be ready for season as well.  I myself traded in my 25  Contender for the new 23 Bay which I’m very excited about.  Haven’t gotten it wet yet but hopefully sometime this week or next.  Fishing has been decent the last couple of months there’s been a variety of things going on.  Tarpon in the everglades have been good on & off.  September I had some pretty decent fishing back there which was good to see.  October can yield some awesome fishing for resident tarpon as we start to get the fall bait run so that’s something to look forward to.  We’ve had some good snook fishing in the backcountry too not supe red hot all the time, but overall decent and a few days with some good big ones around.  Capt. Stephen has done some local fishing for permit and bonefish lately and that has been really good!  They had trips with multiple bonefish recently and got a nice big 25 lb permit on one day around the bridges which was really cool.  If you are looking to go fishing in October it’s a great time to be here as mentioned with the bait runs going on and it’s still a little slower with business so you get the fishing more to yourself.  We also just fished the Keys Kids fishing derby and my son Felix got 1st place which was really cool with a nice 2.5 lb mangrove snapper.  Come down and take the kids fishing this fall you won’t regret it!

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

Well it’s getting to be later July and we’re in the heat of summer.  We had a very good tarpon season overall and again I don’t update this website as much during prime tarpon months as that’s what we’re doing 95% of the time.  Though now that we’re into July there are definitely some other things we start doing as tarpon fishing can be a little less consistent and we start exploring in the backcountry more.  Many of the tarpon that are here during season have moved on so we’re left with the residents.  The numbers you see any given day aren’t near what they are in April or May, but sometimes you can still have pretty good fishing and combine that with much less fishing pressure and it’s not bad.  And some years in the backcountry we get some pretty good size groups of resident tarpon that can rival the big days of the early migratory season.  However so far this summer it’s not been tons of fish though that can change and I’m sure it will at some point so if you are looking to tarpon fish, we’ll give you the rundown on what to expect and often times we recommend being open to other opportunities in addition to tarpon.

I did fish a little bit a couple weeks ago.  I just got back from the Bahamas but earlier in July I have some reports.  I did tarpon fish one day locally around the bridges and we had a tough day the first week of July.  We actually saw a decent number of fish but whatever was going on they were just not biting.  We fished the bridges and then around some local channels and basins.  Everywhere we saw fish and we worked them hard but no love for us.  So that kind of put the nail in the coffin for me to call the ‘end’ of prime tarpon season lol!  A few days later we fished the backcountry and that was very good we had a big day with snook, redfish, and some small goliath groupers.  I would say a 30+ fish day so that was pretty good.  A few days later we had requests for tarpon but we decided to spend part of the day doing the snook thing and then try for tarpon later.  Snook fishing was OK that day we had to work at it but caught maybe 8 or 10 or so.  Then the last half of the day we looked for tarpon and low and behold we found a pretty good group of them offshore kind of about as far as we normally see them away off the backcountry beaches.  We worked them for a couple hours and we jumped two fish after putting ample time in, then finally right before the buzzer we hooked a nice 60# fish we landed and got good pictures of.  So we made it happen but it did take some work and a bit of luck.

Capt. Steve has been out since I’ve been away the last 10 days or so.  They have had OK tarpon fishing locally still getting a few bites around the bridges and channels.  Typically not where you are hooking a bunch of fish but if you put time in you can get a shot or two.  He’s had some good permit fishing around the slack tide at the bridges too with permit landed on multiple trips.  They also had some bonefish on some days and completed 2 backcountry slams on one of the days!  Bravo!  And they also have been in the backcountry doing the snook/redfish thing which was fair too.  So all in all a little bit of everything and it’s best to be open to suggestion as to what to try.  Steve will be gone the month of August but I will be taking a few trips and Capt. Trent is also available as well.  So give us a shout if you want to get out there and we hope to see you down here in the Florida Keys!

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