Featured

Welcome to my website!

Subscribe to my YouTube channel, I’m working on this a lot these days.

Hello and thanks for dropping by my Islamorada Fishing Charter website!  My name is Capt. Rick Stanczyk and I’m a fishing guide in Islamorada, Florida Keys.  I fish out of the world famous Bud n’ Mary’s Fishing Marina located at MM 79.8 in Islamorada.  You can find out more about me here, though for a quick synopsis… I was born in 1982, grew up fishing here, and have lived in the Florida Keys for almost my entire life.  I mostly fish in the backcountry which consists of Florida Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, and Everglades National Park… though I do also on occasion fish out on the ocean side in the shallow parts of the Atlantic Ocean.  You can find out more details about my fishing charters here.  I run a 25′ Contender Bay Boat capable of taking up to 4 persons out on 4, 6, or 8 hour trips.  These days however I am mostly just fishing 8 hour full days, though will take shorter trips in off season when I’m not as busy.  I’ve done this for a living, full time since 2008, though being raised here I’ve been fishing in the Keys much longer than that. My specialty is tarpon fishing, however certain times of the year we aren’t catching those very often so I focus on other types of fishing.  On this website you will find my daily updated fishing reports during ‘off’ tarpon season, which is usually November – February.  I will still try to update on a regular basis during tarpon season, and day reports when we are fishing for other things, though you can also check out my other website Islamorada Tarpon Fishing for daily updated reports during that time.  If you are interested in booking a fishing trip please contact me!  If I am unavailable, or you need multiple boats for your group party,  I work with plenty of other well qualified captains that do both inshore and offshore fishing here in the local area.

Thanks,

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903

Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

IMPORTANT: All anglers starting Jan 10th, 2019 will be required to have an Everglades Visitors Pass when fishing in the park.  You can obtain one via internet/phone at http://www.yourpassnow.com and select Everglades National Park.  Most of my fishing is inside the park, so check with me but more than likely you will need one.  You can also purchase an annual/lifetime pass at store.usgs.gov

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

Epic day of the ‘Big Nasties’

Well had one of the best days ever last week fishing with my dad and our friend Charlie Kluck.  Lots of big black drum, big snook, permit, cobia, and more!  One to remember thats for sure…  The best fish of the day was a 45ish lb black drum for Charlie, maybe the biggest I’ve ever seen back there.  Then he followed it up with a 25ish lb snook!  It was definitely his day.  Also as mentioned we caught several more big black drum, some snook, and a permit and a couple small cobias.  Also included in the video are some good catches from my anglers later in the week with some large redfish.  January is a great time and offers some unique opportunities with the colder weather patterns.  Not always like this but it can be when conditions are right, and you definitely can’t catch ’em sitting on the couch!  Also please subscribe to our YouTube channel below if you want to see more.

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

First week of January 2021 Islamorada Fishing Report

Some good conditions finally after kind of a crappy week of weather to finish up 2020!  Go figure what a way to end the year with it blowing 25!  But the new year started off right things calmed down, cooled down, and we caught some good fish – take a look!

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

Mid December Islamorada Fishing Report

Well winter is here we’ve had a few real cold fronts with temperatures dipping down into the 50s.  It had just warmed up after the last one and gotten to feel almost like summer again, and boom today was back into the high 50s in the morning.  But the fish haven’t minded I’ve had some luck with some bigger specimens the last week or so.  When it’s calm it’s been more productive for those big boys, but when the wind is blowing we’ve been fishing in the more protected areas and usually getting some good action with the numbers although smaller fish.  Though I’ve been spoiled what can I say!  Here are some of the great fish we caught in the last 10 days or so.  Some big redfish on the prowl in the near gulf, as well as some large black drum after the cold fronts.  The big snook have been around on & off all summer but will get good after it gets cold as well.  Plenty of days open in January and I still have some open during christmas week believe it or not.  January is one of my favorite months of the year to fish as it’s our coldest month and if you time it right that is often when the big boys come out to play.  Of course that’s hard to do but fishing is all about taking chances!

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

12/4/2020 Early December Islamorada Fishing Report

Well we finally are getting some cold weather down here in S Florida.  It’s been so warm through November and we even had some late season tropical development, but luckily no major storms to worry about.  But now the temperatures have dropped and it feels like winter.  As of late the water tempartures had dipped down into the low 60s, and warmed back up to near 70.  With that a lot of redfish have shown up with some black drum in the mix.  Snook fishing has stayed good as it has been all year.  But we got into some bigger fish the last few trips which was good to see.  The next few months, these big size fish are possible especially after the water temperatures dip and it gets nice afterwards.  Check out some of the big black drum we found today, as well as some big snook for my dad the past few trips.  Also a ton of good size redfish today too which was cool to see.  Between now and christmas is a good time to come and it’s not too busy.  And of course January is one of my favorite months of the year too with the coldest weather we usually see here.

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