Got out with Jack and Sandy today for a full day of backcountry fishing. It was super windy again but the wind swung around a little more south. One of my least favorite wind directions! Jack wanted to try and catch snook, and I said if we got the right bait (pilchards) we’d give it a good try. Bait wasn’t easy it was super muddy with the wind, but we were able to get lucky and blind throw and caught probably 150 baits. We made our way towards the cape and it didn’t look very nice over there… mud everywhere, typical with that wind direction. We tried to find some areas tucked away inside. We had one little tarpon suck a pilchard off in one area that was it. No bites in the next couple stops. We ran further back to try the shorelines on the western side of the mainland, in the lee of the wind. Had one snook bite there but unfortunately it was while we had the rod in the holder and missed him. We ran even further back to fish some other creeks, found a buddy of mine in one but he said fishing wasn’t great they had caught some trout while the tide was moving, but it was in the slow process of changing now. We gave it 40 minutes or so and caught a couple trout and then bailed. We ran all the way towards home, tried around an island for some snook but no bites there. We then tried to catch the mackerels in the bay near home where they were biting good a couple days before. But we never had a sniff there… We tried a couple more spots locally in Islamorada for snook, and did manage to finally catch one and then had one other bite we missed. Anyways very tough day, haven’t had one in a while but I guess I was due. Tomorrow my anglers want tarpon so I’ll be sticking to that gameplan.
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
