Well unfortunately we had a mix up on dates so I ended up being open today and tomorrow. Luckily I caught it yesterday and was able to rebook tomorrow and decided to take my dad, Steven and sportswriter Al Ristori from NJ out for fun. We headed back to cape sable with some shrimp and got out early. I didn’t really think about it being a holiday weekend, but there were lots of boats back there today so that kind of put a damper on things straight away… We even left early but there were already half a dozen boats in the general area when we got there. Anyways we got to the spot we wanted to luckily, but not much happening there. We did catch one black drum and a few nice trout, though we did lose 3 big fish which were likely large black drums. One got eaten by a shark, one broke us off in some underwater brush, and another just went through the leader. One of those unlucky starts! After that boats started to crowd the area so we decided to run further back and try some other creeks that aren’t fished as much. We caught plenty of little things – snapper, jacks, and a few more big trout – but no snook, reds, or drum. We then worked our way back towards home and tried some other areas. No luck in the first few stops and was almost going to consider the day a wash. But we kept at it and finally when the tide turned and we got in a different area, we started to pick a few fish. Out of 3 spots we got about a half dozen reds and three snook, and missed a couple other bites. Not red hot but it was nice to put some quality fish in the boat. Had several boats go by us in the area where we normally rarely see people, so we could tell it was still busy. Wrapped up the day after that. I did hear a buddy of mine had a very good day fishing one of the areas we tried later in the morning but he was there first thing… unfortunately you can’t be everywhere at once, but at least I have a good idea of where to start tomorrow!
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
1/14/17 Mid January Backcountry Islamorada Fishing Report
Had some fun today and mixed things up a little bit with Tony and Rob down from Miami. We hit the gulf first as I didn’t want the pressure of trying to catch fish at the cape with the weekend crowds back there. It proved a good bet, we had to wait a half hour or so for mackerels to show up, but when they did it was game on. We probably caught about 2 dozen or so in an hour and a half. The falling tide and northeast wind made it fairly nice out there too in the gulf. After that we headed towards the mainland cape sable area. There were quite a few boats fishing the areas that have been crowded throughout the week, but not as bad as I thought it’d be. We got in their on the end of the falling tide and caught the start of the rise – an ideal time to be there. We tried a couple areas that were good the last few days, and not much luck there. So we tried a different stretch of creek that sometimes gets good when the water is cooler. It paid off and we caught about 8 snook, 1 red, and 1 black drum. A few nice size snook for the boys too was a real treat. After that we tried to catch a shark at the canal mouth, but no luck with that the water is still a little chilly and the sharks are usually not too happy then. After that it was time to go home, all in all another fantastic day fishing in the everglades and gulf of mexico out of islamorada!
1/13/17 Everglades Fishing in the Florida Keys January
Got out with Fred and his son Brandon today into the backcountry. The winds were breezy in the AM but by late morning kicked up to 25 mph! Things have warmed up some too the water was close to 70 back where we were. Fishing was still pretty good and it was much less crowded than the last few days thankfully. We had to jump around a bit but got on plenty of black drum and snook. Brandon also landed one of the ‘lunker’ black drums that I love to catch, which was probably close to 35 lbs! The pictures dont do him justice but he was a warrior for sure… We also got a handful of redfish and sheepshead. The afternoon was a little slower as the tide started roaring in and brought plenty of muddy water with it due to the wind. I imagine the weekend tomorrow will be a zoo again so I’ll probably try to do some other stuff. Hopefully it’ll lay down eventually and maybe we’ll get another good cold front or two this month!
1/12/17 January Gulf Fishing in Islamorada
Got out in the gulf today, customers wanted to try to catch sharks. Unfortunately with the water still in the low 60s, the shark fishing usually isn’t as productive as it is in the spring or summer months. But I thought we’d still have a decent shot. So we hit the near by wrecks for some spanish mackerel. The first stop the water was dirty and we caught a bunch of jack crevelles, but no macks. So we went to another area and found much cleaner water and the mackerels bit very well. We spent a little over an hour there and caught 20 or so, plenty for bait. We then ran into the backcountry to try some shark spots. The tide was just trickling in and we had several bites and landed two lemon sharks, one about 70 lbs, and the other was a whopper probably 200 lbs! After that it slowed down we had one big mystery fish that was laying on the bottom with the bait but we pulled the hook. We tried another channel on the way home for the last hour as the customers wanted to keep trying, but no more luck for us. Anyways was happy to get a couple good sharks with chilly conditions that weren’t great, plus plenty of action fish in the AM! Tomorrow we may do mackerels and everglades/drum/snook, not sure yet….
1/11/17 January winter time backcountry fishing in Islamorada
What a day today it was very good fishing. The water temps rose slightly a couple degrees into the mid to l0w 60s, and the fish got fired up. We wore ’em out all day long today… snook, redfish, black drum, and sheepshead. It seemed every boat in the area did fairly well too. Caught the last of the falling tide in one spot and it was good, then the beginning of the rise in another spot. I think we boated over 50 fish. Everything was eating shrimp worked very slowly on the bottom. Hopefully it’ll hold up a bit longer, I am booked through the weekend. Tomorrow they want sharks so I’m not sure how that’ll be but hopefully they’ll bite, I may try to talk ’em into this though as it was so good today.
