Had both boats out with myself and Capt. Stephen running the Contender Bays the last two days. First day we fished Kenneth and his racing crew. It was a prefrontal conditions light north wind but still very warm as it has been for much of the fall and winter in the 80s. Had great days doing a variety of things! My boat we hung around the backcountry islands and had a good bite of snook with some redfish mixed in and small goliath groupers. I think we had over 20 of those in total had to work around for them a little bit but consistent enough action to keep it interesting! After that we caught nice size snappers on our pilchards for dinner and got our limit again working around for the larger snappers makes it a bit more challenging and fun. Steves boat had some snook and redfish early and then hit the gulf and got into some spanish mackerel and plenty of snapper out there he had 4 guys so they had there 20 snappers too. They hooked up with a large tarpon at the end of the day too though it broke through the leader on a massive jump.
Yesterday I had Pride and Cile who are regular customers of mine though they hadn’t been down in a few years. Today the front came in and it was in the low 60s and chilly! Strong 25 mph north wind too but the ride into the backcountry was a breeze on the comfortable contender bay boat, we didn’t take a drop of spray! We just fished shrimp and we picked around catching snook, redfish, and black drum. It wasn’t as productive as the previous day, and a few spots had nothing at all. Though we were fishing a different area where we were tucked inside out of the wind. Though we did get into one good spot where we caught a dozen or so fish in one area, all the rest were just one or two fish and a few with nothing. But still good day overall and great fishing with them again. Stephen had fished my dad and his pal Ricky Walker from England. They had similar fishing with snook and a few redfish. They did get a nice juvenile tarpon at the end of the day though which was very cool!
Fishing should remain good this December it’s suppose to warm back up again but I’m sure it’ll get colder again here in the future at some point. Plenty of fishing options though right now with the backcountry, gulf, and patch reefs, and as mentioned still some tarpon around when its warmer too so you never know! Give me a shout to get out fishing we have boats ready to roll.
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina
