Got out with Brenda and her husband Todd who are two Islamorada locals. They won a trip with me through a donation to the Bougainvillea Ball fundraiser last year. Brenda also use to cut my hair when I was a boy so we’ve known each other a long time! They were wanting to wait till things cooled off a little bit so Fall was an ideal time, and with the cold front we had come in it was definitely cooler than it had been, albeit a little windy but at least not a bad direction out of the north. We caught bait and headed out back also bringing some shrimp with us too. There were quite a few boats being the weekend. We tried a couple spots to start but no luck, the water was super muddy and tide was ripping pretty good. But we kept at it and then jumped into another area where we got by ourselves. We got into a killer redfish bite, catching them just about every cast for an hour or so! I lost count but we probably caught close to 30 or so, and Brenda got a nice snook as well and a trout. It was great to see such good action, I’ve caught a few of these small reds the last couple months but nothing like this. Anyways the tide kept falling and it got super low with the full moon and north wind, so much so that we got stuck in the canal where we were fishing! We bounced around some other spots and found a few more snook but bigger ones. Brenda caught two nice ones and her biggest ever. Todd hooked a couple but unfortunately they did not stay on for him, both got loose next to the boat! Last part of the day we found some small tarpon and set up trying to catch one of them, but they seemed to know we were there and disappeared as soon as we got set up. We hung out and had to wait another 30 minutes for the tide to come up before we could leave, but it did and we made our way home. Anyways a great day for these two, I was glad as I heard fishing was much tougher for several other guides. Things seemed to be biting shrimp as well as the pilchards so I was glad we had both. I’m off the next couple days to do some boat work, but fishing again mid week, but I do have Thursday available as well if anyone wants to get out there. Northeast wind all week should be favorable for some backcountry fishing like this!
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
