Got out for a full day today in the everglades backcountry and we did a mixed bag trip. Tonight we have a cold front coming in and it is suppose to drop back into the 50s for a couple nights. Today though it was not too cold, water temps were still in the high 60s after the last front they’ve slowly been warming. We caught a handful of black drums and a snook back in the everglades. Not a red hot bite and there were a lot of boats back there due to it being the weekend. Anyways glad we got a few and then we tried some other areas. Fished one island pretty hard for snook, but no bites there unfortunately. We had both pilchards and shrimp which we tried, as in this area it was a little bit warmer. After that we tried a snapper area and had good luck there, catching a half dozen nice 12-14 inch snappers. Also got a nice redfish here which we released as we don’t like killing the few redfish that are around and live in those areas. On the way home we tried another snapper area that wasn’t as productive, lots of fish there but they didn’t want to eat the larger pilchards, and small guys picked away our shrimps. But we did manage a couple more snappers at least. We tried a patch reef on the way home and caught a bunch of lane snapper out there, nothing real big but good action and kept a few for dinner to supplement what we had in the box. So all in all not a bad day with a handful of quality fish, and plenty for dinner. Off tomorrow and back at it Monday and Tuesday, then not much until next Saturday again. But this week could be good fishing as it will cool off again and shouldn’t be too busy back there being mid-week…. I like the looks of it!
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
