Backcountry Fishing Reports

Well summer is rolling by quickly as we are well into August already.  The fishing has been just about as hot as the weather though thankfully!  I’ve still been focused mostly on tarpon as is usually the case with me.  Summer is often one of my favorite times of year to fish them, as the spawning business is done with and many of the resident fish show back up and are hungry and ready to feed.  This july was not quite as good as last year’s epic fishing, but had been consistent none the less.  However August things have honestly gotten a little more hit and miss so far.  As of late it seems you can usually get a good crack early on the tarpon if you are lucky, and then hadn’t been seeing much past 9 AM or so.  But that can all change in a hurry as we know and as I like to say you don’t know unless you go.  Thankfully though we’ve had some pretty epic fishing for other things.  Snook and redfish fishing has been about as good as I’ve ever seen it.  And this can be any time of day often too though mornings are still usually nicer with the heat.  For my customers that haven’t been wanting just tarpon, i’ve usually been fishing the islands and shorelines and catching 50 or more redfish/snook is not uncommon right now.  The other day I had Oliver and Matt out for a half day and the boys put on a clinic catching probably 50 redfish, 20 snook, and a big lemon shark in just a 4 hour trip!  Today I had James, Alex, and Amy out.  We did a 3/4 day and they probably caught 30 snook and 40 reds.  Just incredible fishing.  We also had pretty epic fishing for tripletail in june and early july, and there are still a decent number of them floating around but you would likely have to put some time in looking for them.  I have not been out in the gulf much lately as we had a bit of southwesterly wind for a while there with some of the weather systems that have been grazing us.  Not that it’s been crazy rough, but that wind direction isn’t very good for out there plus it does create a bite of a swell even without the wind cranking.  But right now we have very light/flat calm winds for the next week, and then just a light southeasterly.  So who knows there could still be some big schools of permit out there.  If you are interested in fishing, give me a shout!

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

Well summer is here and the fishing is just great!  I’m still doing a lot of tarpon fishing but we’ve also had some other things going on too.  With my new Contender Bay Boat that can go 50 mph, i’ve been able to get to some pretty cool areas deep in the backcountry as well as out in the gulf.  We’ve been having some great permit fishing out on some deeper gulf wrecks, and that should continue through July which is often when it gets even better!  With this new boat, on a full day you can easily have time to tarpon fish in the morning, then hit the gulf wrecks in the afternoon on the right days (calmer, can’t be cranking wind) and then still even possibly have time to do something else on the way home!  Just all depends how cooperative the fish are.  Anyways in the last couple weeks, we’ve had some great days out there catching multiple permit on some trips.  Other days they were a little bit tougher and we may have just gotten 1 or 2.  Tarpon fishing has been pretty good for me lately though I’ve been running very far.  It’s been consistent though, I have yet to strike out in the area I’m fishing and most of the time we’ve landed multiple fish.  Snook and redfish fishing had been very good back there too, though as of late it got a little tougher in some areas with the southerly winds we had.  Though the flamingo area has still been good with snook/redfish even with that not so great wind direction.  Anyways July is just around the corner and that is one of my favorite months to fish here.  It was a stellar month for tarpon last year and often is, and again can be great for other things too!

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

Fantastic day with Jen, Ryan, Brody, and Hailey! We did the mixed bag routine, as I told them tarpon had been hit or miss lately. Baits been on the tougher side, and the tarpon themselves are sparse in the backcocintry and the ones around the bridges are not feeding as actively during the day so it can make for a long trip. The nice thing out back is we have a lot of Plan Bs like we resorted to today. Saw a couple tarpon early but hard to line up on and we never really got in them good. We got a few sharks though and maybe had one tarpon zip us but not sure. After that we went and fished our light gear. We caught a few redfish and ladyfish drifting de shorelines. We then fished another area as the tide came in which was very good. We worked the area hard, and kept moving and it kept producing fish for us. We probably caught a good dozen snook and a dozen reds as well in there. Several nicer size reds too and some decent snook. Nice as we kept trolling and moving and kept us interested. On the way home we stopped and Jen got a monster snook which was an awesome catch! Last fish of the day was a permit for Dad, quite a way to end it. It was a blast! May be more focused on tarpon tomorrow hopefully we can find a few happy ones, but will have plan B in the back pocket.

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

Had no time to post yesterday, but had Chad and his son Logan again for day 2. We made a long run in hopes of finding some tarpon in some other areas. Found a handful but not what we were really looking for. Hard to line up on though we did get in them but non responsive. Luckily we had good Plan B options. We caught a bunch of smaller redfish and snook, plus plenty of trout, ladyfish, and jacks. Looked around in the gulf and got a juvenile goliath and a few pompano as well. Tried one more stop for tarpon on the way home and found a few but again no luck, though did catch a cool hammerhead!

Today I had my dad and his long time friends Bill and Charlie. We werent concerned with tarpon today do we spent the early part of the day catching bait. Hair hooked some nice pilchards and caught a few mackerel too. We found some very nice size snook in several spots. Really had them going in one, it was fun. Dad caught a nice big one probably 14 lbs or so. After that we found the redfish again and a few trout. We then cruised the gulf again to finish the day, catching mostly jacks and one nice pompano. But we did get lucky and found some permit and dad got a nice 20 lber! Bill also caught a big jack crevelle and a 18 lb cobia. Banner day everything seemed to work out for us, and great first trip for dad in the new boat. The contender seems to be a fish catching machine!

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

Mixed it up today with Scott and Leslie. They caught tarpon the other day and wanted to see the backcountry. We had decent action throughout the day, had to work at it somewhat but caught a good handful of snook, quite a few redfish, a juvenile Goliath grouper, and several trout and Jack’s. Weather was gorgeous and we got to see plenty of birds and crocodiles too. The next few days I have some regulars and we will likely be doing similar stuff I don’t think tarpon will be the main objective.

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