Backcountry Fishing Reports

Fantastic day with Howard and Amit. There buddies came down and also fished with Capt. Bill Bassett on his boat. We had a cold front come in yesterday. Didn’t get crazy cold but the winds cranked hard and definitely cooled off a bit. Super low tides early with the wind blowing it out. We were barely able to get where we wanted but squeaked in there. Howard got s snook right off the bat, then a red a little later. We had to jump around, but got on a better redfish bite after that. Took a little bit to get them going, but when they did it was strong fishing with lots of double headers! After the tide quit and wind laid off slightly, we decided to try some other things. We got on a pretty good snook bite, water looked great with a nice easy tide. Howard and Amit both caught a good handful of snook, with four being nice size ones and several smaller ones too. Amit also jumped a small tarpon. We also picked a few more redfish and a sheepshead. We tried one last spot in hopes of something real big, but not much luck there. A bunch of catfish but on another nearby spot we tried and did find some Jacks and nice size trout. Day 2 tomorrow let’s see what it brings!

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

Got out with Rick and Greg today for what was to be a full day trip.  The weather had other ideas though it looked pretty nasty with some incoming rain before a minor cold front that was hitting us.  But it looked fishable at least for a while.  We blasted out and it wasn’t too bad until we hit the line of weather.  We battoned down and had to run through about 4 miles of torrential downpour, but once we got through to the other side it was kinda nice.  We caught a ton of redfish for about an hour.  It started to drizzle lightly after that and the tide quit.  We looked for some tarpon and found quite a few.  But they weren’t interested in our offerings, though we caught several blacktip sharks including a couple size large ones!  After that we could see some tarpon free jumping and kept moving out towards them, it looked like it would be good fishing.  But the rain intensified and we decided to run back towards home.  Caught our limit of snappers on the way in and then called it a day.  Made the best of it and beats sitting in a hotel room for sure.  It’ll be cooling down more tonight and north wind and chilly tomorrow, probably good for snook/reds in the everglades.  But then getting nice and calm friday through the weekend… could mean big things!  Sounds like the tarpon bite around town is better then in the backcountry right now.  Though sometimes it’s hard to sit around town all day, so unless people really really want a tarpon you have a lot more options running into the backcountry, which is what most of my clients have preferred as of late.  As we get closer to March though, I think it’ll turn on back there for them.

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

Got out with Jim and is son Adam for the day today.  We had a mixed bag plan again.  On the way out, we found a couple big herds of mullet and caught a bunch of them!  Now I had tarpon on the brain….  We checked some of the channels in the backcountry, and did see a handful.  We set up, and soon had a shark on and then Adam had a tarpon bite that we missed!  Unfortunately that was the last of the tarpon action, fish didn’t seem super happy with the water still on the chilly side and the south wind we had.  When the tide quit, we hit a redfish hole and bailed about 30 redfish in 30 minutes, great bite!  When the tide started out, we checked again for tarpon and found a couple different groups of fish, but no big schools.  We tried a few places, and just couldn’t get them to respond but we did catch several more big sharks.  After we’d had enough, we went and looked for tripletails.  Saw quite a few of them and caught 3, but nothing real big.  The boys then decided they wanted to try and catch some snook.  So we bolted for the mainland creeks, and had to work around a few spots but they each caught a snook at least and missed a few other random bites.  South wind was ripping on the way home, got things really muddied up.  But looks like we have a minor cold front on Wednesday night that’ll get the wind back in the north and cool things down slightly.  Not that the tarpon fishing is great but it’ll probably slow that down even more, just not much happening super early with them but hopefully that means it’ll be real good later in the season since they are being held off!

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

Lots of action today in the glades! Larry had booked with me some time ago, and I had he and his son out today! Last year we caught big tarpon. They wanted to try and catch some snook as they hadn’t caught those down here yet. We headed out into the Everglades early and planned on a mixed bag day, with hopefully some snook included of course. We checked an area for tarpon first thing and we did find a handful, though they weren’t very interested in our offerings and kind of split as soon as we got set up. We did catch a few sharks though. After that we went to out lighter gear and got into a ton of redfish! It was fish every cast. We also got a few small snook, or sneaks as we like to call them. A few juvenile Goliaths were landed as well. We tried a few other spots and all had a variety of fish, including one other spot with plenty of reds and some nice size trout. On the way home we hit a couple more snook spots, and did catch a few nice size ones for the boys which was fun. Back at it tomorrow likely with a similar plan. Fishing is still really good, more fish in the Everglades then I can ever remember!

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

Great day with Jeb and Melanie, despite the 20 knot winds! Started off not too bad but was blustery by days end. We caught our limit of snappers quickly which was nice and easy. Then we headed to the mackerel grounds. Had to jump around to three different spots to find good water, but we did and caught a good 15 or so plus some other odds and ends. After that we checked an area for tarpon but didn’t see much. Did hook a few big sharks though. We decided to bail and finished up on a great redfish bite, catching a good 3 dozen or so to round out our day! Back at it tomorrow.

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