January is almost over and winter time has really kicked into full effect! We’ve had several cold fronts and this coming weekend we may have the coldest weather we’ve had in 15 years… forecast to get down into the 30s possibly in the keys! Hopefully that won’t cause any fish kills but it’ll definitely be chilly and we have some more cold on the way after that too. It should yield some good backcountry opportunities next week after the front passes and things calm down. Speaking of which we’ve had those conditions a few times recently and have really caught some good fish. Yesterday I had Dan and Zack out and we got into a red hot snook bite first thing in the morning. With 59 degree temperatures I didn’t know if it would be going off right from the start but he fish seem to be well adjusted, so I’m hopeful this next front won’t do anything too crazy too ’em. Later on yesterday we got into some larger snook and black drum, the boys each landed a nice big snook and Dan got a big drum and a nice big tripletail too. A few days before I had my dad and our friend Ron out and it was a colder day right after the last front had blown in. The bite wasn’t as red hot but we did manage a few nice snook and a good black drum. I’m sure if we would’ve fished a little longer into the later mid day time it wouldn’t gotten better as that day the fish weren’t quite as adjusted to the cold. Last week I also had my dad and Ron out and we got into some better fishing catching several nice size black drums, a couple big tripletails, a large snook, and my dad got a monster 30lb redfish! February will be here soon and I’m thinking it’ll be a little slower start to tarpon season this year with these cold fronts that keep rolling in. That may not be a bad thing as sometimes things get going very early and then it often seems May/June can get a little slower. But if things hold off until late February I think that will help the overall season. We should still have good opportunities for snook, redfish, drum, mackerel, cobia, and more with the cooler water temps however. The calendar is starting to really fill in but we have some days available in February still so if you want to get out on the water, give us a shout and we’ll let you know what’s going on. You can book on-line here or just shoot me an email to discuss any questions you may have.
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina
