12/6/16 December Backcountry Fishing in the Florida Keys

Well I decided to repower my boat so it’s been in the shop waiting for a new motor which I should be getting tomorrow.  My lower unit had blown a seal so needed to be replaced which would’ve cost several thousand dollars, and the motor itself was still running but they said wasn’t looking great.  So for me with as far as I run and being we are getting into busy season, I figured it was time to do the deed and sell this one for what I can get while it’s still running.  So tomorrow I should be back in business.  Today I fished and used one of our other smaller skiffs to take John and Jeff out again who were fishing with me last week.  We fished the cape and it wasn’t very easy we had a pretty good southwesterly breeze and high water, so everything looked like a big mudhole.  We picked some random oddities – snappers, ladyfish, jacks, etc… at the first spot for a while and eventually got a black drum.  After that we tried a few shoreline spots but not much luck.  Eventually we worked our way into some of the smaller creeks and were able to pick away we got a nice snook on the first stop, then nothing on the next two spots, then another snook on another spot, and then finally we got into a decent rally of fish for the last 45 minutes.  I think we ended up catching 4 snook, 2 reds, 5 black drums, and a handful of other rod benders.  Had to work for it but at least we ended up having a decent day.  The winds look to lay off tonight for a couple days but we have a front coming in Thursday night so it’ll be kicking right back up again but hopefully more out of the north/northeast.  Anyways that should help out our traditional winter time fishing although it’s not getting very cold only in high 60s, but as of right now it almost feels like summer again today.  Have a half day tomorrow then getting my boat back and may go fun fishing this weekend or hopefully pick up a pay trip.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk