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!
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
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.
1/10/17 January Everglades Backcountry Fishing Cold Front
Well just got back in town yesterday after some fun skiing in Wyoming! The cold weather followed us though they got hit with a good front here in South Florida on Saturday night, dropping into the low 50s here. The water temps were still say down even though the air had warmed up a little, as the wind was still howling too keeping the water from warming up. We got into the backcountry today with Toni and Andy and had a good day overall. It was a slow start we got one nice big snook in the first stop, then nothing else for about 40 minutes, kept waiting for it to turn on but it didn’t. Tried another spot and nothing, then ran to a spot we know for the larger black drums, and caught one little drum and then a nice 20 lber! I thought it was going to be red hot, but again it shut right off after that. We tried a couple other spots and no luck at all. Then went into some smaller creeks to try, got one more snook and a sheepshead. After that I was almost ready to bail but the wind was howling now so there wasn’t going to be many more options that were easy to get to. So we tried one last ditch spot and it turned out to be the honey hole! We probably caught 10 or so snook, 8 black drum, and a redfish, to finish up the last 1.5 hours of the day. Some days when it gets cold like this it can be the best fishing you’ve ever had, or it can be a very slow pick until you hopefully get to that good red hot spot. Looks like a busy week for me I am booked every day until sunday, and then got several days booked next week as well. Gimme a shout if you want to wet a line here fishing in Islamorada in January!
1/1/17 January new years day fishing!
Got out to celebrate the new year fun fishing with my wife and dad. We left early and headed back into the everglades to fish some of the creeks. A couple days ago it was very tough over there, though with the wind settling down and muddiness clearing up slightly, I heard it had gotten better yesterday. We had a fun morning we probably caught 18 fish or so. A mix of redfish, black drum, snook, and sheepshead. Not a red hot bite, but you caught one every 5 or 10 minutes, and sometimes got a rally of a few multiple fish. The wind kicked up later in the morning we tried a few things offshore in the gulf, but not much luck, and headed home early for lunch! I’m going out of town tomorrow and will be back the 8th, time for the yearly ski trip hopefully it won’t be too cold but I think that is wishful thinking!
