Another excellent day this time with Tom, Sharon, and their son Jake. They live down here for part of the year and then are back in Jersey for the other part. Tom had been following my blog and decided to get out for a 3/4 day with me. Conditions were favorable we just had a good cold front a couple days ago, and the wind laid down some yesterday and today was suppose to be very calm though there was a slight breeze but not bad at all. Good conditions for trying for some larger ‘winter time’ fish like the snook and drum. We don’t always knock ’em dead, but your chance to get a real quality fish are there on a day like today. We stopped at our first spot and it was quiet to start. Tide was starting in but not running too hard which was good. Soon we hooked up and Jake caught a black drum, and a bit later we got another one a little bigger. After that we had a good thump and something that screamed some line off! We chased after it and low and behold it was a nice permit. Nice surprise on a fairly cold morning. We landed him and it was all smiles! After that, jake had a good thump as well and I thought it might be another one. But this time it was a big snook probably a 15 lber! We got him too, it was Jake’s first snook, I told him he might be spoiled now. We missed one more bite there, and then the tide seemed to be rolling pretty hard so it was kind of over with. We tried a few spots where we had fished yesterday, but the tide was really ripping which was unexpected as yesterday it was a very weak tide almost all morning. We bounced around and didn’t do much, so we bailed and tried another area. We got into a sick redfish bite, catching double and triple headers for about 40 minutes! A few nice size fish mixed in too, and Sharon got a small snook as well. After that, I told the crew we might have a shot at catching a few more quality fish as the tide was nearing it’s end and as it slowed down we’d have another shot at that type of stuff. Everyone was game so we gave it a whirl. We were rewarded with several big black drum. Not monsters, but some good 12 to 15 lbers. Sharon had the right touch and caught 3 or 4, and the boys each got another one I believe to wrap up the morning. Just a fantastic day and nice way to wrap up the month as I’m taking the day off tomorrow. January is always a favorite month of mine as we get some of these great cold weather days. Not every day is like today, but if you hit the conditions right it can happen! I think I’m open on Friday if anyone wants to go, otherwise I’ll likely be going fishing myself for fun! Then it’s full steam ahead in February the next few months are already very busy, but give me a shout as I have a handful of days available in there.
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
