September is winding down though it has given me a welcomed break from fishing every day. It is always our slowest month of the year. Thankfully though as I mentioned it is a welcome one, a time to catch my breath and take care of all the things in life you can’t get to when you are so busy. Anyways fishing can still be good this time of year it is just slow on the business side of things – with kids going back to school, hunting seasons opening everywhere, the possibilities of hurricanes (though unlikely), and the heat – all seem to keep it quiet here for the month. Anyhow I have been getting out a couple days a week. I’m not currently running my SeaCraft as it is getting some repair work done, but I am running a smaller action craft skiff. I’ve still had the majority of my customers asking for tarpon and there have still been a few around. It hasn’t been red hot action every day, though we have caught them just about every day we fished for them I think with exception to one. A few days we had multiple shots and were able to land a couple fish, the others it was only a single shot but we got one. Bait was fairly plentiful on the incoming tides in the backcountry, the falling tides it was a little tougher though we had gotten lucky a couple times and found some big schools of mullet in the gulf. The sharks had been few and far between, though after the hard rains last week with the water cooling down about 10 degrees we did have some good shark action while tarpon fishing which was nice. It is always nice to have that filler in between while waiting for a tarpon bite. In the near-gulf bays the snapper fishing has been really good I’ve been chunking up mullet or ballyhoo and catching some big snappers. This has been the best bet for action/rod bending, and there are big ladyfish and a few trout mixed in too. This is not as tidal related and can be good into the Fall. Snook and redfish have been around though honestly I haven’t done much of it as the bugs have been horrendous with all the rain we had, plus it has been difficult to find any good size pilchards. My future forecast for October is… [sociallocker id=”692″] looking pretty good! October is one of my favorite months to fish down here in Islamorada with the start of cooler weather coming our way. We usually get a week or two of insane fishing with the ‘fall bait run.’ There is no way to tell when this will occur but when we start getting some northerly breezes it will push hordes of baitfish down the coast and the big predators follow right along. Big tarpon, sharks, snook, redfish, and everything… When the bait run occurs, sometimes you can see hundreds of tarpon in an area busting on all kinds of baitfish, it is pretty spectacular. Anyhow even if that is not occurring it can still be good fishing. Tarpon are definitely still a possibility then too but it may not be the insane show that the bait run brings. I will start to focus more on catching smaller whitebait (pilchards) and the snook/redfish fishing. With the cooler temperatures look for those fish to push out of the skinny water flats into the island moats, shorelines, and creeks where we fish in the Fall. Other options are the gulf as spanish mackerel can sometimes make an early arrival, plus there are tripletail out there and cobias on the deeper wrecks. Anyways the point is October ca be very good fishing, business is still fairly slow so you can often have the backcountry to yourself with very good fishing to boot. Drop me a line if you are looking to go out![/sociallocker]
9/20/15 September Islamorada 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!
