Backcountry Fishing Reports

Well with a late cold front several days ago fishing got a little tricky this week.  We had a few days of having to work a bit harder but still able to put some decent catches together of snook and redfish.  Nothing super glorious as we had a lot of wind and it swung south and that makes many of the areas I like to fish a little less productive.  But yesterday we decided to take a gamble and made a long run up the coast to further grounds.  Often times this area is in the lee on a hard south/southeast wind and you can still have decent fishing especially on your falling tides when much of the other backcountry is ‘mudded out.’   We still had to work hard but were able to pick away at some smaller snooks.  But then we were rewarded we found a school of juvenile tarpon, casted in to them and we hooked a monster snook 38 incher!  We then caught a small tarpon and got another boatside that came off.  Then we caught another monster snook 41 inches and maybe the biggest I’ve had landed on my boat we don’t see too many that size here in South Florida.  Anyways just awesome day!   I was back out today with my regulars Pride and Cile, we tried for a repeat performance but it was much tougher today.  Couldn’t get much going up the road except for some smaller snapper, trout, jacks, mackerels, ladyfish, etc…  When the tide finally turned on the way home we did get into a good bite of snook and a few reds, and finished the day up with a small goliath.  But boy had to sweat it out until the last couple hours of the day!

Major cold front coming in tomorrow for 3 days, suppose to get into the mid 50s the next 3 nights.  So it’ll likely shut the tarpon fishing down for a good week or so I’d imagine, at least until it’s likely worthwhile to invest time again.  But who knows maybe some winter time backcountry bigguns’ will show up!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Spring has sprung.. incredible day with pops, cousin Kevin, and neice Casey. Jurassic Park was open with big redfish, mongo snook, 45ish lb cobia, 45ish lb big nasty black drum (one of biggest I’ve seen), and a couple big tarpon. Once in a lifetime type of day!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with Steve, Chris, Kelly, and Cathy today for a full days trip.  They were visiting from Oregon and wanted to see the backcountry.  We ran into the creeks, it was a southeasterly wind not too bad in the morning but picked up by the afternoon.  Bugs got us a little bit early on, we caught about a half dozen fish in 20 minutes, and then moved as they were getting horrendous!  Luckily next stop was more open area and the bugs weren’t too bad at all there.  We continued to pick away at redfish and snook.  When the tide started to bottom out an hour or so later, we made another move and then got into a a good rally of fish.  Chris had a tarpon on that we got near boatside then threw the hook.  We then got into a bunch of snook and redfish, really lost count.  Cathy got a tarpon and that one we landed, got it on video but it jumped out of my hands before we could get a good still pic!  Cathy got a small goliath grouper as well.  When the tide changed, the fishing slowed a little and we eventually called it quits.  The wind was ripping on the way home, but we had a little extra time to try a spot for a shot at something big.  Conditions didn’t look great, but looked like we had a shot at least.  We got another small goliath to start, then Chris hooked up 3 nice redfish in a row – an 18 lber, a 15 lber, and then a 10 lber!  Great way to end the day with some real quality fish!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with the Kentucky crew today, Don, John, Jeff, and Boyd.  Winds were howling a bit but nothing the Contender Bay couldn’t handle.  We tucked up in the creeks, it was dead low tide early on and a little scary getting into some areas.  Slow start but once the tide started to trickle in, the fish did too.  Picked away at some snook and redfish, then after 3 or 4 stops got into a little flurry of them catching maybe a dozen or so.  Next stop we got into a pretty hot snook bite probably caught three dozen fish in an hour and a half or so.  Nothing super huge but the numbers added up by the days end probably close to 50 fish.  Wind really started kicking on the ride home a good 25 mph or so.  But nice to put up numbers like that with the wind machine cranking hard.  Back at it tomorrow looks like similar conditions.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

Got out with my dad and The Bean Brandon Storin along with our long time friend Darryl Choronzey.  Darryl did a fishing show in Canada for a long time, Going Fishing TV, and had done some shows with my dad almost 30 years ago!  We hit the backcountry and tried for some bigger fish but mixed it up with some smaller guys as well.  The big fish weren’t too cooperative, we did sense many of them nearby but they just weren’t wanting to feed.  We did get a good black drum, and missed a whopper snook I believe that we just didn’t get the hook in.  Bean caught a big red at the end of the day some 25-30 lbs which was the fish of the day for sure, and on the last cast no less.  We did catch plenty of smaller snook and some decent reds as well for good measure, plus some good trout.  Fun day out there, we’ll be putting a show together of the adventure so keep an eye out!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing