Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Fishing Islamorada

Backcountry Fishing Reports

The latest backcountry islamorada fishing reports from Capt. Rick Stanczyk. These reports are the truth – the good, the bad, and the ugly. Remember all florida keys fishing guides fish the same waters and I take pride in ‘straight shooting’ with my florida keys fishing reports. I often fish the gulf of mexico, florida bay, the everglades, near islamorada, and the patch reefs offshore which are all under the ‘backcountry’ umbrella. I’ll let you know what I’ve been catching, and what I expect to be catching in the near future. Remember I’m on the water over 300 trips a year and I’ve been fishing here a long time. I try to include plenty of pictures as well as useful information so you’ll get a feel of how I fish and what to expect. Also if you want to appear in my fishing reports just let me know, I’m happy to add any of my customers by request! You can scroll down and click the title of any fishing report to read the full thing with pictures, as well as just look where the text stops and click ‘continue reading’.

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 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 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

October 9, 2025 by Backcountry Fishing Reports Fishing Reports

8/27/25 Late August Backcountry Fishing in Islamorada

Well August is almost over and were in the doldrems of summer for sure!  Weather has been hot and calm but fishing overall hasn’t been too bad.  It’s that time of year though when we get rain showers often though you can usually run around them or just wait and in 20 minutes they’re gone.  Though sometimes you get chased away if the lightning is bad but that’s summer time in Florida.  So last week we had great calm conditions with light east/northeast winds and the snook fishing was very good a couple different days.  I had my dad and one of our employees Lainey out for the big snooks.  I’ve been marking some big schools of them in several different areas back there.  When conditions are right they seem to bite pretty well though if not you can see ’em but you can’t catch ’em.  We had west wind a few days before and they did not bite for us, but on this day it was light north like I mentioned and the big snook were fired up!  My dad, lainey, and I caught 7 or 8 nice ones and probably hooked another 7 or 8 more that we either pulled off or the sharks got unfortunately.  All on jigs and pinfish which we’re able to usually keep on hand now.  I also took a buddy of mine out a few days later and we caught 4 or 5 good ones again and same thing pulled off 4 or 5 others and a shark got one.  This week the wind is west again so I haven’t been back there but snapper fishing was good on a half day for us today.  September can still yield some good opportunities and it’s slow with business so I often have days available short notice and can even move trips around to accommodate better conditions.  I’m also offering discounted rates for the month so you can get a 3/4 day and hit the further spots for the price of a half day.  If you’re looking to go give me a shout and we can get you in there!

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

August 31, 2025 by Backcountry Fishing Reports

7/21/25 Late July Islamorada Backcountry Fishing Report

Well we’re in the midst of summer and getting to the real dog days here where its starting to get hot!  Honestly though it’s not all that bad on the water most days as long as you have a little bit of a breeze.  Also we like to leave the dock plenty early to get our fishing in before the heat gets to you.  So we have had a much better summer of tarpon fishing compared to the earlier spring time of March/April.  May and June got much better and July has overall been really good too.  The last couple of weeks there have been a fair number of tarpon out in the backcountry.  I’ve had several banner days with double digit bites so about as good as you could ask for.  Though I also did have one day where the tarpon were there they just weren’t biting in the window we were fishing.  That day it was a bit windier and we had falling tide and just tried all we could to get them to react but not much.  Finally at the end of that trip I gave it an extra 30 minutes once the tide started in and we did definitely jump one fish and possibly had another bite but neither of them stayed connected for us.  Unfortunately that’s how fishing goes and I always tell people I do what I can which this time of year means leaving the dock early, either already having or spending time catching fresh bait, running far and timing the tides as best we can where we fish.  But overall it’s not a bad time to come and hopefully August and September will continue producing for us.  There have been some big snook in the mix too we were catching some back in June randomly while tarpon fishing several days.  I’ve actually tried targeting them in the last couple of weeks with my dad and we had luck on both days catching 3 each day and that is of course of those size L and XL fish.  I actually caught one myself that may have been the biggest I’ve ever landed and I think was close to 30 lbs.  If you want to get out in the next couple of months shoot me an email I definitely will have some time in August available as well as in September.  September we are offering discounts too and barring any hurricanes that is often a great time of year to fish.

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

July 21, 2025 by Backcountry Fishing Reports Fishing Reports
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Hello my name is Capt. Rick Stanczyk and welcome to my website! I’m a fishing guide in the fabulous Florida Keys, Islamorada to be specific. Tarpon are the species I spend a lot of time fishing for and they are my passion. I fish a more limited schedule these days though I have a team of young talented guides who I've been training that are available for fishing charters, so please get in touch if you want to go fishing!

305-747-6903
rick@fishingislamorada.com

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