Got out with Eric and Brandon today and we mixed it up a bit. Flat calm with light southeasterly breeze later in the day. We caught the last trickle of incoming tide out on the mackerel grounds, and was a little worried since it was so calm that it’d be tough to get them going. But it ended up being pretty good we probably caught a couple dozen mackerels in about an hour or so. After that the boys had mentioned wanted to try for tarpon and I said there had been a few around when conditions had been right, and it looked like today it may of warmed up just enough to get some action out of them if they were around, so we tried that. We ended up coming across a herd of them in one of the channels, and 2nd bait in the water we hooked a big 150 lber! He fought hard and jumped a lot and we landed him, plus tons of blacktip sharks and eventually got a sawfish too. No more tarpon bites but it’s a good day to get 1 especially this time of year.
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
2/16/17 + 2/17/17 February Backcountry Islamorada Fishing Report
Got out with John, Jim, and Joe the last couple of days. Yesterday winds were honking out of the west north west as a cold front came upon us. The temperatures didn’t drop until last night, but it was a steady 18-20 mph breeze through the day. The near gulf bay was too rough to get in, so we tried some areas in the backcountry that border on the gulf. It was a bit muddy out there and didn’t catch much besides a couple ladyfish and a bluefish. So we hit some islands for some mangrove snappers. We were able to pick enough for dinner. After that we caught a big sawfish which was cool, had another one on too that we broke off. We then hit the backcountry canals and tried for some snook. It wasn’t red hot but we did catch a couple, and lost a 3rd one that may of possibly been a juvenile goliath grouper, couldn’t tell as he got us in the sticks pretty quickly. After that it was was time to come home.
Today it was much nicer it was a little breezy out of the north in the AM and chilly down in the low 60s. It warmed up pretty quickly though and by mid day the winds were almost nothing. We hammered the spanish mackerel in the morning along with a few snappers and jacks. We then hit a few patch reefs on the atlantic ocean side. Mangrove snappers were in the first one and we got a few of them for dinner again. Next stop had plenty of lane snappers and a couple porgies. Water every where was very green. Didn’t find any hogfish which I was hoping for, but the blacktip sharks were swarming out there which was interesting. They were eating about every other fish we hooked, or at least trying too! We put a big rod out and caught one for fun. After that we tried another patch reef in a different area without much luck, then tried drifting shrimp around the bridges. We had a couple good bites and lost a big fish – not sure what – in some structure around the bridge. After that the boys wanted to go in to catch a flight. We cleaned some fish and that was it. All in all we had some fun and decent fishing given the not so great conditions yesterday especially.
Looks like the temps will stay cool tonight in the low 60s, but not suppose to blow hard and should warm back up in a few days. Hopefully those tarpon will be getting more active again I’m sure once the water temps get back in the high 70s they will be!
2/15/17 February Fishing in Islamorada Florida
Jim and Gwen were with me again today, it was a little breezy out of the southwest with an impending cold front coming tomorrow night. We had some leftover bait from yesterday and Gwen didn’t want too bumpy of a ride so we stayed in the backcountry bays and channels. We caught some sharks, a big ‘mud marlin’ sawfish, and one tarpon! We also lost another tarpon unfortunately. With the wind and conditions it was fairly good fishing to be honest so we were happy. We decided to hit the mangrove islands for some snapper on the way home. That was a little tougher we had to work around but eventually we found some nice snappers in one of the cuts leading into the island – the island itself seemed to be filled with undersized ones. Anyhow, back at it tomorrow. Gonna get cold so tarpon may slow down for a few days here until water temps get back up near 80.
2/13/17 February backcountry fishing in the Gulf
Got out with Jim and Gwen, two of my favorite long time customers. We hit the mackerel grounds early and caught a ton of spanish macks it was hot and heavy action. Also a few bluefish and blue runners in the mix. After that Jim wanted to try for a goliath grouper so we ran out further to one of the wrecks that hold them. Unfortunately there were so many big bull sharks at the wreck it was tough to get through them. We got one big 300 lb bull shark up to the boat, and proceeded to hook 4 more that we chased around and eventually just popped most of them off trying to get back to the grouper. Jim wasn’t feeling well though and eventually he had enough and we decided to head in a little early. On the way home I spotted a couple triple tail, and one looked like a keeper so I talked him into just spinning around to catch that – as triple tail was on his species target list too. We got him for dinner, and headed home happy. I have tomorrow off to do some service work on my motor, then back at it Wednesday with these two again. Suppose to blow but it’s warm enough again for tarpon so may give that a shot, we’ll see…
2/11/17 February Fishing in South Florida
Today the winds swung back to the east/southeast, it wasn’t blowing too hard either but still 10-15 mph. We caught the mackerels well in the morning it was action just about every cast. I had 3 anglers and this was a good option for them. We kept a few for bait and some for the table as well. After that we tried to see if their were some big critters in the channels where they were a few days ago before the last front. We sat for about 40 minutes with our cut bait out, but alas never even had a sniff on them. I didn’t see any tarpon roll or anything either, so we went to another area further back. Here the fishing was much better and I noticed the water temperature was also 73 degrees instead of 70 like the previous spot. We ended up catching a couple goliath groupers, a couple big sawfish (only saw the bill of 1 before he cut us off), and a big lemon shark. It was good action and some big fish! After that we caught some snappers for dinner on our shrimp leftovers, couldn’t find any monster snappers to eat our cut bait, but we did get a few keepers for the table. Tomorrow I have the day off so far, will be nice! Next week it’s getting busy again.
