Backcountry Fishing Reports

Fun 3/4 day with Carol and Wayne visiting from Knoxville. We checked out the gulf with the light winds it was very nice out there. Did some Spanish mackerel early, I haven’t been out there much but it was good just about every cast and some nice size fish too! After that we looked for some tripletails. Didn’t see a ton, but once we got in the zone we saw more. Caught a few and missed a few, but a good time none the less. After that we still had a little time so we tried for something big. We put some chunked mackerel out, and got a bite pretty soon after. Carol hooked and caught a lunker bull redfish! Very cool and unexpected. We got a shark after that, and called it a day. Good fishing continues looks like it’ll be getting slightly windier tomorrow. It’s warm enough a few tarpon should start showing up, probably not gonna be red hot fishing unless we get a slicked out calm day, but could be worth a try if the temperatures don’t drop again. Might be giving it a whirl later this week… Stay tuned!

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

Got out with a friend of my dads Arnold who had chartered me, and my dad came along with us.  He’s been quite the lucky charm as of late.  We had slick calm conditions, a perfect spring-like day as things warmed up from the cold we had last week.  I figured it’d be the type of day some special things may happen.  We tried a couple spots early on in the gulf without much luck… kind of surprising.  So we decided to run further out, farther than I’ve been in a while!  But we were up for an adventure and to try something new.  We got deep into the gulf, totally out of phone range and probably a good ~70 miles from home!  Near an area I had some numbers for, we saw some activity on the surface.  We slowed down and saw a big school of permit!  We got the trolling motor in the water and quietly approached, getting some shots with our shrimps and jigs!  We ended up hooking a triple header!  WOW!  We landed all three fish after some effort, the largest being a 30 lber or so and the other two in the 20lb range.  Great shot and what a way to start the day!  After that the fish got a little spookier, but we kept working them and caught several more, including another triple header, and a couple doubles along with some singles.  Just a banner morning of fishing!  Once the sun got high though it was kind of over with.  We checked another area and didn’t find much.  Coming back we saw another school of fish, but they were definitely acting different and kind of on to us.  We did get a few good shots on them, but they were running hard and not interested in feeding.  We looked for tripletail on the way back inshore but did not see many and didn’t want to bother with small ones that we saw.  After a very long ride in, we stopped and caught about 20 redfish on the way home for Arnold.  And then headed on in!  Wow banner day and I hope to see more of it in the future!  I’m open tomorrow, may take the day off and rest as I hurt my back yesterday, though to be honest I am kind of itching to get out there again so we’ll see what happens!

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

Fun day with pops! I wasn’t booked so we did a little exploring. Went tripletail fishing early on. Lots of fish floating on the buoys which was great to see! We even found one big pack of fish which we were able to set up on with the trolling motor and pick ’em off one at a time which made for great fun. We headed deep into the gulf later in the morning and tried some spots out there which I hadn’t been in a while. One of them didn’t have much at all, and hard to say if much of the spot is left since the hurricane. The other had a couple boats already there so I didn’t want to crowd the place. But the last one paid off big! We found a lurking school of big redfish and managed to catch 4 of them including a double header! Very cool you could see the stain of red as the school circled around. But after we messed with those few of them they disappeared and that was that. Just awesome to see though, i don’t get to catch them too often but I always love when I do. We ran around and saw a few more tripletails including a monster free floater but we lost track of him unfortunately. We did get a nice black drum on the way home and then called it a day. Off tomorrow then back at it sunday!

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

Another excellent day this time with Tom, Sharon, and their son Jake. They live down here for part of the year and then are back in Jersey for the other part. Tom had been following my blog and decided to get out for a 3/4 day with me. Conditions were favorable we just had a good cold front a couple days ago, and the wind laid down some yesterday and today was suppose to be very calm though there was a slight breeze but not bad at all. Good conditions for trying for some larger ‘winter time’ fish like the snook and drum. We don’t always knock ’em dead, but your chance to get a real quality fish are there on a day like today. We stopped at our first spot and it was quiet to start. Tide was starting in but not running too hard which was good. Soon we hooked up and Jake caught a black drum, and a bit later we got another one a little bigger. After that we had a good thump and something that screamed some line off! We chased after it and low and behold it was a nice permit. Nice surprise on a fairly cold morning. We landed him and it was all smiles! After that, jake had a good thump as well and I thought it might be another one. But this time it was a big snook probably a 15 lber! We got him too, it was Jake’s first snook, I told him he might be spoiled now. We missed one more bite there, and then the tide seemed to be rolling pretty hard so it was kind of over with. We tried a few spots where we had fished yesterday, but the tide was really ripping which was unexpected as yesterday it was a very weak tide almost all morning. We bounced around and didn’t do much, so we bailed and tried another area. We got into a sick redfish bite, catching double and triple headers for about 40 minutes! A few nice size fish mixed in too, and Sharon got a small snook as well. After that, I told the crew we might have a shot at catching a few more quality fish as the tide was nearing it’s end and as it slowed down we’d have another shot at that type of stuff. Everyone was game so we gave it a whirl. We were rewarded with several big black drum. Not monsters, but some good 12 to 15 lbers. Sharon had the right touch and caught 3 or 4, and the boys each got another one I believe to wrap up the morning. Just a fantastic day and nice way to wrap up the month as I’m taking the day off tomorrow. January is always a favorite month of mine as we get some of these great cold weather days. Not every day is like today, but if you hit the conditions right it can happen! I think I’m open on Friday if anyone wants to go, otherwise I’ll likely be going fishing myself for fun! Then it’s full steam ahead in February the next few months are already very busy, but give me a shout as I have a handful of days available in there.

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

1/28/19 – Day 2 with Steve and Jim! It was very cold, cloudy, and windy today but no rain. The boys wanted to stay and try to get some meat close to home. I was fine with avoiding the long run in the backcountry for a day! We hit the patches and it was very good, lots of porgies and a variety of snappers and other things. After a couple hours we went a bit more inshore to get out of the wind. We found a big school of redfish in a couple different places! This is unusual to see in Islamorada itself as these fish are usually further back in the everglades/gulf waters. We caught probably close to 40 in the two spots, and some nice size ones too up to a little over 20 inches. Very cool! After that we did go back around a few islands to get our limit of mangrove snapper. Had to look around a bit for some larger ones but we found them, and a few more redfish mixed in as well here too! All in all a great day for the boys and we didn’t have to go more than 10 miles from home. Back at it today it’s gonna be colder, might be a week for some large backcountry fish if conditions are right which it might be!

1/29/19 – Great day 2 with Jim and Gwen! We had nice conditions fairly calm and cold. Was hoping to find some stacked up snooks, but wasn’t the day for it. Jim did get a nice one to start however. We moved around and got on a good redfish and black drum bite after that. Also a few trout and sheepshead too. Gwen even caught a small tarpon but we didn’t get it up for pictures as it broke off while leadering it into the net. After that we checked some areas out in the gulf as it was flat calm now. Not too much on the wrecks we checked, but did get into a big school of bluefish for some action! We ran back inshore and got a few nice size black drum, a good size redfish for Gwen, and Jim got a very nice size snook too! Jim also hooked a tarpon that unfortunately got away. But overall just an awesome day with two of my favorite customers who have been fishing me a long time now! Back at it tomorrow looks like it will be nice and calm again hopefully some good conditions for us!

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