Backcountry Fishing Reports

Got out with new customers Aaron and his son Alex today for a full day trip.  They hadn’t been in the backcountry before and were eager to try some new types of fishing.  We had fairly blustery conditions, 15-20 mph easterly winds.  I didn’t fish the last couple days but Saturday it blew 30+ mph as we had a major weather system come in… didn’t get very cold but it was a cold front and did drop temperatures down slightly 5 to 10 degrees maybe.  We had the last trickle of falling tide and caught a black drum to start then nothing but catfish.  Moved around a few spots waiting for the tide change and didn’t catch much.  Once the tide started in we started to pick away, a few redfish, a couple more drum, and a few snook.  Did that for an hour or so, no monsters but some decent fish.  We made another move and then got into some more fish.  Again not every cast but we caught them in flurries, a good handful of redfish, a real nice 12 lb snook and a 12 lb red, a few more small black drum, a sheepshead, and a few other randoms like jacks and ladyfish.  After that we went and fished a shallow sand bar that had some fish on it last week.  Lucky us it was holding again today and we caught probably 2 dozen redfish here, another half dozen snook, some trout, and a few other odds and ends.  So I would say the bite got better and better as the day went on and we finished strong.  The boys caught a mess of fish and the wind didn’t deter us.  Looks like we have some calmer weather tomorrow, I’m taking my dad fun fishing, then another front this weekend will drop it into the 60s at night!  Looking forward to some cooling off, we should get some big fish showing up when the water temperatures dip down into the 60s, may take a day or two for them to adjust but getting to the ‘cold weather’ fishing time that I love in the winter!  Have a few more days open through the 24th then I’ll be going out of town for Thanksgiving and back around December 3rd.  Plenty of days open in December give me a shout if you are interested!

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

Got out filming today for episode 4 of the BNM YouTube show!  We mixed it up a bit to try and show some different stuff.  Caught a few nice snook, reds, and drums early on just cause it looked good, and also bagged a nice 30 lb tarpon on light tackle!  Nice way to start the day.  Then we went out in the gulf.  Found some big pods of bait and got into some monster spanish mackerel.  It was fun as we were able to chase and cast to them, as opposed to sitting and chumming.  But nice size fish!  We also got some jacks, a pompano, and a few trout and sharks while doing this.  We finished the day catching several goliath groupers, one was about 300 lbs!  Was hoping we’d find a few cobia or permit but unfortunately no luck there, there was a boat on one spot where we wanted to go but that looked like it’d of been the place!  Anyways great fishing still!  Looks like we have some weather coming in the next week bringing some cooling off.  It’ll be good for the backcountry for sure… snook, drums, reds, etc… should be firing off.

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

Got out for a 3/4 day with my friend Dave Limroth and his buddies Bob and Chris.  Dave has been fishing down in the keys for over 30 years and always stays at bud n marys in October so I’ve known him for a while.  We had a little weather change the winds kicked up a good bit and things cooled off a hair with a mild front dropping temperatures a few degrees.  We got into the backcountry and the wind swung more northerly, making it nice and calm back there early on for the first hour or two being in the lee of the wind.  Fishing was pretty good, it took a little bit to get going but boy it was a total change from the last time i was in these areas.  Lots of big snook showed up, we probably caught 15 or so in the 10 to 20 lb range.  Also plenty of redfish up to about 13 lbs or so, and a couple of nice black drums of 15 and 20 or so lbs.  And don’t forget a couple juvenile goliath groupers.  It was just good fishing honestly doesn’t really get a whole lot better than this.  We fished mostly with our jigs and shrimp but did catch a few fish on pinfish too.  Finished the day on a new spot I found that had a bunch of smaller redfish and some very nice trout which was cool too.  We’re filming episode 4 of the BNM YouTube show tomorrow, hoping to get out in the gulf for something new.  But I have several days open next week fishing has been really good so give me a shout!

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

Got out for a full day today with Bill and his buddies.  We fished around Flamingo and had a great day!  Just stuck with our shrimp, we checked a few spots for bait but didn’t see much just a handful and didn’t really seem worth messing with.  But we hammered the snook in the first stop, I think we probably caught 50 or so.  Also a handful of redfish and snappers.  Sharks started to find us after a little while but didn’t lose too many.  Afterwards we fished a few other islands and worked around, just a slow pick of fish from there on it but probably managed another 8 or so snook and a few more reds.  After that we decided to run in the gulf and look for some tripletail.  We found some good numbers right away, although small, but eventually got a nice 10 lber or so.  Then we looked for a while and didn’t see much, and eventually got into another promising area where again we saw quite a few small guys then another keeper size that unfortunately wouldn’t eat for us.  After that we looked a bit more but things dried up and the water started getting nasty.  But all in all a great day!  Still very warm, suppose to get a ‘cool front’ this weekend, just dropping 4 or 5 degrees but it’s something.  Fishing is still good though but looking forward to a little cool off, and may make the fishing even better!

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

Got out for a few hours of fun fishing with my brother in law Jonathan.  They were down visiting for the weekend and we had some time to play.  Just tried to hit a few of my spots hopefully for a big snook, redfish, drum, etc…  Water was gorgeous some of the prettiest I’ve seen in those areas and looked like it was going to be very very good.  Though to be honest it wasn’t – i was surprised!  Tons of jacks, mackerels,  and little sharks in a couple of those areas, hard to get through them.  We did catch some snook and a few redfish in the first stop, nothing super big but a handful.  Spot 2 we did get one nice redfish about 10 to 12 lbs for him so that was cool, then it was very hard to get through the sharks.  Next stop we got a decent snook same thing about a 10-12 lber and some more jacks.  Then we made one more stop and caught a few more redfish.  Then we stopped again in the area where we started as the tide had changed and thought it may pick back up, but we picked a few more snook and redfish.  So it was a decent pick of fish and a lot of action if you were into the jacks, mackerel, etc… but with as clean and nice as  the water looked with the nice lighter north breeze early on, I was hoping we’d of whacked ’em good but just wasn’t the case.  Need a cold front to move some fish around I think.  But all that being said I’m sure we could’ve done well fishing some other areas, and especially if we had more time, but since it wasn’t a pay trip where I felt I had to produce numbers we were just trying to go for the big boys.  I’m pretty busy the rest of this week we’ll see what happens out there.  Looks like this weekend we will finally get a slight cool down just a few degrees, but hopefully it’s a sign of more to come.

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