May 2018

5/26/18 May Islamorada Fishing Report

Well May is flying by and it’s hard to believe summer time is here yet again!  I’ve been very busy fishing just about every day.  Of course it’s prime time tarpon season so that is what I’ve been doing 95% of the time.  My islamoradatarpon.com blog has my daily reports concerning that.  But figured I’d give this one an update as well as it’s been a while.  The tarpon fishing has been stellar this year for the most part.  Though in the last month it’s gotten a little more hit and miss some days.  It is ‘prime time’ but that also means it is busy time so the pressure is high on these tarpon fish.  After getting beat up day and night for so long they get moody and it seems to be that there are windows where they seem to bite well and times when they aren’t doing much.  That’s why I often prefer fishing in the off season for them, however of course you aren’t as guaranteed to find them then though I’m usually fairly good at it as I focus on it a lot.  We had our first tropical storm of the season today and it’s been rainy for the last 10 days or so though we really needed it.  It hasn’t slowed the fishing down though and I think in the long run it will be a good thing.  Other then tarpon there has been some decent trout and snapper fishing in the bays.  I’ve caught a handful of snook and redfish too on some days when messing around with that.  As we get more into summer with calmer weather the snook bite should really turn on in the everglades.  We will also hopefully get some good permit action out in the gulf of mexico.  But June and July are still very good months for tarpon and again I am mostly focused on that.  The early morning everglades thing will be the norm for me for the next 4 or 5 months or so.  If you want to catch tarpon in the Florida Keys, give me a shout.  I often have availability more last minute especially as we get into July and August.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing