Tarpon Fishing

The Florida Keys are home to one of the premier tarpon fishing destinations on the planet!  Every spring, thousands of tarpon migrate through our waters from both the Atlantic and Gulf sides, offering some of the best opportunities you’ll find for catching tarpon on bait, fly, or artificial.  What’s also unique about the Keys is we have tarpon that live here year round, unlike many other areas of the U.S.  Sometimes the ‘off season’ is even better fishing than in prime time as these tarpon aren’t seeing near the pressure that they do in the spring time.  Generally speaking, your best tarpon fishing months are April through July.  Though we usually start catching some in February whenever the water temperatures consistently get in the mid 70 degree range.  Some years it stays like that and we have a good early spring for them, other years we are bombarded with late cold fronts and the tarpon fishing doesn’t get consistent until a little later.  One things for sure though – if the weather is calm and warm, you should have a very good chance at catching tarpon in Islamorada.  April and May are traditionally thought of as the peak months of tarpon season and this is definitely true – you probably have more tarpon here at these times than any other, as there are a large number of migrating fish here then plus many of the residents.  Though you must remember, just about every guide is fishing at these times too (many during the day, and many at night) so the fish have a ton of pressure on them during these months.  With all that pressure the fish definitely get smart after a while, so while you may see lots of fish on any given day, you may find that there are times when they just don’t want to bite!  The summer time offers great fishing for more of our resident tarpon.  Usually some time in June the spawning business seems to be over and many of the larger fish start to work there way north.  This means you have many of the resident tarpon, often the smaller males in the 20 to 60 lb range, coming back to their usual haunts and they often are hungry!  Often your conditions are ideal as the windy spring season is over, so you get a lot more calm, warm days that these fish love.  There are also a lot less boats fishing for them and many of the ‘out of town’ guides have left for the summer.  So all of a sudden the tarpon seem to get much easier to catch, even though you may not see the big numbers of them that we did earlier in the year.  Often times even in the Fall we get good fishing for tarpon.  September and October can sometimes provide a ‘fall bait run’ similar to the spring mullet run that we get, though it is not as consistent as the spring bait migration as to how much bait and where exactly it occurs.  But some years we have some of the best fishing we ever see during this time, and there usually is hardly anyone else out there to compete with so it can be a great time to come.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk is one of our premier tarpon specialists, read his Islamorada Tarpon Fishing Blog or follow him on Facebook. Updated every day that he targets tarpon!

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Most of our guides prefer to live bait fish with crabs and mullet, which is the thrill of a lifetime. They may fish dead baits at times too when the tarpon are not feeding on live ones, which can often be the case depending on conditions/time of day. Often bait is caught before or during the trip with a cast net, or sometimes even on rod and reel and saved for later. In April and May mullet are usually available for purchase which is how many guides obtain them. Crabs are usually available most of the time too for islamorada tarpon fishing.

The local bridges and channels near Bud N’ Mary’s are usually very productive on half day trips for Islamorada Tarpon Fishing . On full days we often fish them in the everglades while fishing for other species too! Our guides often fish the early mornings or later evenings in season as that provides the best chance for a bite depending on what the tide is doing. So if your looking for the ‘fish of a lifetime,’ such as a Tarpon in the Keys, you are in the right place!

We feel the entire experience and area we go to fish is as much as part of the excitement as catching a tarpon, so we do not fish the tarpon in our marina basin! These are like trained pets, so while it may appear they are all over the place as you see them in many marina basins and canals, it is often a different story when your out looking for them in the wild.

Unfortunately, we do not bring tarpon into the boat for taking pictures. It is now against the law as tarpon are deemed a ‘sportfish’ and special rules in Florida apply. The reason for this is lifting these fish up by the head and gills is unsafe for the fish as they are not designed to support weight in this way. They also can become uncontrollable at times and thrash around in the boat, breaking things and injuring themselves and possibly those in the boat as well. If you desire a picture, it is usually possible to get a ‘leader shot’ of you holding the fish alongside the boat, or in certain cases it may even be possible to jump in and hold the fish too! Due to lessening the mortality rates of these fish, we suggest only wearing one fish down to the point of being able to get a picture and cutting the rest off once the leader is grabbed and they are considered caught.

Mounting a tarpon is a great option for those wanting to remember a ‘fish of a lifetime.’ Nowadays it does not require killing of the fish to do so, only a estimate of the fishes size and weight needs to be obtained. We use Gray Taxidermy to produce high quality, life-like mounts of all fish and they truly do an incredible job. They are all hand painted and molded out of fiberglass so they can last a lifetime. Mounts can be completed and shipped often within 3 months. Check with your captain for details!

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Fishing Reports

5 star ratingcaptains Jimmy and Dave are awesome! Love the Gimme Jimmy - perfect fishing boat. Caught tons of dolphin and Dave knows what he's doing. Highly recommend! Will never fish with anyone else!
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Jill B. Avatar
Jill B.
7/24/2015
5 star ratingHad a great time aboard the Miss Islamorada !! Super professional and friendly crew !! The captain was awesome. He explained everything in detail. He was always ready to answer a question or help you while we were anchored. The mates were the best I have ever encountered on a party boat !! Seth and Essex went far and above to make sure everyone caught fish and had a great time. So professional !! They seemed to be everywhere at once !! This boat may not have all the amenities some look for, like an air conditioned cabin and food for sale on board, but the Miss Islamorada is a serious fishing machine. Fast and stable. Leaves and arrives on time, 30 people max on the boat, which makes for an awesome mate to passenger ratio. I think there were about 20 people on my trip. Again, best mates I have seen yet. The mates provided us a variety of baits like ballyhoo, squid, and shrimp. They even hooked me up with live baits. Lots of action !! This boat also does not allow the stern to be reserved like many party boats I have been on. That is awesome. The mates split us up into 3 groups and rotated us to the stern where they had chummed the water. They gave us all spinning reels and shrimp for bait and we slayed the mangrove and yellowtail snappers !! Best part for me. So much fun. We also took turns drift fishing for yellowtail with shrimp and sinking chum balls. Crazy fun !! Everyone caught fish. The mates and captain also gladly filleted our fish and bagged them up for us. Thank you to the Captain and Crew of the Miss Islamorada. Great experience. I will return.
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Phil H. Avatar
Phil H.
7/23/2022
5 star ratingHad a blast fishing on Catch22 with Captain Scott and AJ. Book a trip, put a smile on your face.
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Pete F. Avatar
Pete F.
2/27/2024