Fishing Reports

Well we had a great two days with return customers John & Jan who come down from Pennsylvania!  It’s such a great time of year down here as it’s not so busy and they enjoy that part of being on the water.  We fished for 2 days and did some shorter 3/4 days (6 to noon).  Fishing was pretty good the pilchards have been readily available.  Snook were productive even though we didn’t have ideal tides we were able to catch around 20 or so each day.   We had a high falling tide but with the higher water levels we were still able to fish the shorelines and ‘high tide spots’ for a few hours while the tide was going out.  The fish aren’t always as easy to find as it’s just a different pattern, but we were able to get into a few rallies each day. We also caught a juvenile tarpon on day 1, and two juvenile tarpons on day 2.  Day 2 we were able to catch some mullet for bait early on too, which I haven’t been messing with a lot honestly as it’s been hard to find them in the backcountry where we normally get them this time of  year due to water quality issues.  But we found some locally and did give the medium/large tarpon a try for an hour or so the last day.  But unfortunately we didn’t see much action and just a handful of them around.  I think we might of had some luck if we committed to just tarpon and focused on that from the get-go – but sometimes it’s hard to stray from doing other things where you know you can catch fish.  But all in all fishing is looking to stay pretty good through the Fall, it’s my favorite time of year to fish down here.  September is fairly open as is October.  I have availability and am taking bookings, and Capt. Brandon running my SeaCraft is as well and he’s even offering discounted rates.  So give me a shout!

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

Capt. Brandon ‘The Bean’ Storin has reported excellent fishing this last week of August.  Larger size tripletail have shown up in good number off the beaches and backcountry areas of cape sable and Flamingo.  This is one of Brandon’s favorite things to target and are lots of fun!  There’s a certain level of skill required which makes it much more rewarding for anglers, though if you aren’t sure of your casting skills Capt. Brandon is happy to do that part for you and let you just hook ’em and reel ’em in!  They offer excellent tablefare as well and are probably the best eating fish we have in the backcountry.  Other than that there are good numbers of snook around with quite a few juvenile redfish starting to pop up in the last few weeks.  This is a great sign as the redfish population the last year or two had definitely dwindled from what it was a few years ago.  Though everything ebbs & flows in cycles and hopefully we’re at the start of another run up in their numbers!  Fall & winter are typically great times for snook & redfish in the backcountry and this year with it being offseason the next couple of months, the fishing pressure is finally off of them which leads to great opportunities.  Capt. Brandon has also reported some good fishing for snapper for those just looking for a half day, and there have been some juvenile tarpon in some of his snapper holes for the old ‘dinner & a show’ option!  Give me a shout if you’d like to book a day with Capt. Brandon, we’re still offering a good discount through September and 10% off in October for the time being.

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

So i’ve been fishing a bit this week and we’ve finally had some calm weather after a really windy July & early august.  Very unusual time of year for that much wind.  Fishing had been a little tough through that… we were catching fish but having to work at it a bit.  Today though I had Mark out and the last slick calm day we’re suppose to have as the wind picks up a little again tomorrow.  But fishing was very good.  We caught over 20 snook, 3 redfish, and a juvenile tarpon for a backcountry SLAM for him!  He’d never caught a red so that was extra cool.  We’re getting into off season now, and the last couple years it’s stayed pretty busy all year long with everyone coming to Florida post-COVID… but now this year with recession looming, high fuel prices, etc… it finally seems like business is going somewhat back to normal and it’ll be quiet down here for a month or two.  Which is somewhat welcome to be honest of course we love to be busy but I think the Keys need a bit of a break – the fish certainly do as that constant fishing pressure has been tough on them!  So anyways September can offer some great angling opportunities and the backcountry fishing is often excellent.  Still some resident tarpon around.  And you can have a shot at a permit or bonefish or something like that too.

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

Well July is already nearly over it’s hard to believe!  We’ve had some decent overall fishing the last month.  Tarpon hasn’t been quite what we normally like to see, but I’ve been mixing it up a little more on some trips.  The snook bite has been good for the most part, and a few of those larger specimens around too when the conditions are right.  Tripletail have been around as well which are fun for those looking for a challenge of sight fishing.  I haven’t done a lot of it myself but I know the bonefish bite has been pretty good too fishing the local flats of Islamorada (and of course in a boat like mine that would be stake-up fishing, not poling/sight fishing).  So all in all it’s been a good overall time to be down here.  As we get into August and September I think you can expect more of the same, and hopefully less crowds after the lobster season stuff is over in the first week of August.  Some challenges we’ve had on occasion are getting bait – they haven’t had a steady supply of shrimp so we’re left to our own to get that.  Mullet have been hit & miss which is what I use for tarpon, and some days to get them you have to bypass other bait opportunities.  Pilchards have been around but a lot of little guys.  So some days you kind of have to pick what you want to target (tarpon vs. other stuff), and go after that bait first and fish accordingly.

Anyways I’m fairly busy through the end of this month, then we’re going away again in early August.  But I’ll be around and available through later August and September.  And I also have Capt. Bean running my other boat and he’s been doing pretty well in the backcountry too.  So give me a shout if you are looking to get out fishing.  We have some awesome lodging options at Bud n’ Mary’s Marina that are very affordable – cool new houseboats right on the Atlantic ocean!

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

Well I’ve been out there after the snook lately and the last month or so the bite has been pretty good!  The calm summer weather leads to consistent conditions and summer is traditionally a great time for snook.  Many of the larger fish start roaming the shorelines outside, and more of the numbers of smaller/medium fish can be found fishing structure.  There are enough numbers so far that we haven’t really needed to have pilchards or other live bait, shrimp have done the trick and pinfish for your shots at bigger ones.  The mosquitos and horseflies have been bad on occasion and honestly they are bad one day, and tolerable the next – but I always advise to wear long pants/shirts to protect yourself as much as you can from the bugs.  I had my dad and one of our marina managers Robyn out today, and we were rewarded catching 5 bigger snook fishing the deeper areas offshore.  A couple of them were true giant snook (for here) in the 38 inch range!  We didn’t mess much with the numbers of smaller fish as we got chased out pretty quickly by the bugs.  These larger fish though you don’t always get numbers of them, but if you don’t mind putting the time in for a bite or two it could easily be your personal best snook and that’s always a good day just to get one fish like that in my book!

Hopefully tarpon fishing will get a little more consistent come July time right now there are some fish in the backcountry but it’s definitely taking a lot of patience and weeding through many sharks for a bite or two… so I haven’t really been pushing it unless it’s what somebody is dead set on doing.  But again often July gets a little more consistent with the summer time resident tarpon in the backcountry.

Give me a shout if you want to get down and go fishing this summer!

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