I was out in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for a week or so and just got back in town a few days ago back to the lovely islamorada florida keys. I fished for fun the last couple of days to get some picture/video footage, see what was out there, and just have a good time! We went fishing islamorada backcountry and ran deep into the everglades near cape sable on 11/28/12. Hit a couple of spots for cobia/redfish in the gulf on the way, as the day before we did catch a cobia and several nice size redfish (still waiting on pictures). November islamorada fishing is often great for cobia and larger redfish in the deeper water and gulf of mexico as the water has cooled down. We did get a cobia this day and one decent sized redfish though not huge by any means, as well as a big sting ray that got us excited as it did scream out some drag right away. Once the tide had turned and was coming in, ran to some of the canals in the back. We idled into one of them and started hitting some runoffs. Redfish fishing is often good through the winter in these areas and the fish will stack up in the deeper canals, however today the bite was not redhot. We slowly picked at them, catching 15-20 or so, along with a mix of jacks, ladyfish, snapper, and sea trout. A good mix for any backcountry fishing guide in the florida keys! We decided to run back to east cape canal instead of venturing further into the shallow areas of the deeper creeks to look for some snook. We did catch one nice one on the shoreline along with a nice redfish on pinfish, however those were the only two fish we found on the area of shoreline we fished but were well worth it! Hit a couple spots in lake inghram and caught another 3 snook out of there, 2 being very nice sized fish again as well. Snook fishing Islamorada can be good in the winter time after a cold front, however the fish seemed to have thinned out again from the last front we had. We hit east cape canal after that and stayed late as the water color, current level, and everything seemed ideal, however did not have much luck in there surprisingly. All in all a great day, any day you catch snook like these is excellent! The day before on 11/27/12 I also fun fished. We started the morning fishing spanish mackerel on the edge of the gulf of mexico. The bite was fair we caught enough to keep us entertained, as well as got some cool underwater footage of a big goliath grouper on a wreck. We then hit a spot further out in the gulf and got a cobia as well as 3 nice size big redfish. Tried for a snook near the cape, did hook a nice one but he cut us off unfortunately, and ended the day catching about 2 dozen puppy redfish fishing flamingo. A great two days fishing, and very glad to be back here in the 80 degree weather!
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903
rick@fishingislamorada.com
