May is rolling by fast and I’ve been fishing every day. Overall the fishing has been pretty good. We had a little lull in early May with the tarpon fishing. We had some late cold weather in April with some high winds and things turned off to start May, then we had flat calm weather following the full moon. Plenty of tarpon around though they weren’t feeding very well. Though mid May the bite has gotten much better, though now the fish seem to be much more on the move. Where a big school of fish will be one day, they are gone the next. So you must put your time in and fish hard and move around. We’ve had some big days with good numbers caught, and lots of days with only a few shots at fish. I have not been fishing many nights this year as I had mostly full day trips booked and not trying to burn myself out. Though the last couple weeks the evening bite has been a bit more dependable overall and tarpon are starting to feed on crabs well on the falling tides in the late afternoon/evenings. I’ve been having some good luck in the backcountry with smaller tarpon and plenty of sharks back there, yesterday we landed 4 nice tarpon which was a great day. We also had a good day with about a dozen snook and plenty of trout, snappers, a redfish, and 1 out of 2 tarpon for the ‘SLAM.’ The gulf has held some tripletails though honestly I have not been out there much as I have had mostly people looking for tarpon plus we did have some real windy weather for a good portion of May, not ideal for the open water of the gulf. As we get into June we get to some of my favorite fishing of the year. The early morning trips to the everglades yield a very dependable fishery for tarpon. Also bait is fairly easy to catch back there too. The last few years we were also able to chum pilchards up on many days and had good snook fishing in the afternoons. This can last through August. If your thinking of coming down this summer drop me a line, July and August is some of the best fishing we have all year again because the weather is stable and the early mornings you can be the heat.
5/21/15 May Backcountry Fishing Report
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Capt. Rick Stanczyk is a locally born and raised charter fishing captain in Islamorada, FL. He caught his first bonefish when he was 3 and has been 'on the water fishing' ever since. He loves what he does and enjoys showing his clients a great time fishing in the Florida Keys. Contact him at 305-747-6903 or rick@fishingislamorada.com!
