Backcountry Fishing Reports

Fantastic fishing despite the cold weather today! I had Pete and his grandsons Alec and Ben out. Things cooled off and got into the low 50s in the backcountry. Not too bad of a ride out though, windy but definitely gets worse with some major fronts. We hit the creeks and fishing was good! We found a bunch of redfish early on. As things warmed up and we got more dialed in on our casting, a few snook started to show up. You really had to get your shrimp right in the sticks to entice the snook bite, if you were a foot out they wouldn’t grab it. After a bit we shuffled around a bit. More of the same really, redfish in every spot and a handful of snook in most. Did get a cool sheepshead too and a few trout and snapper. Caught fish every where we went which was nice. Super low tide by noon time, so had to be careful running around. Never caught a black drum today which surprised me, usually they show up stronger when it cools off. But we may get another big push of them with more cold weather on the way next week. I’m wide open this coming week starting Saturday with exception to Sunday and Tuesday. If you wanna go fish it’s good. Cold this week may really get ’em chewing!

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

Got out with Tom, Chuck, and Donna today for a 3/4 day trip.  We fished in the everglades.  Things cooled down a little as we have a cold front coming in, with a bit of a breeze out of the north.  We jumped into some creeks with the falling tide where I knew we’d have to spend the morning, as with the tide getting low we wouldn’t be able to get out.  But fishing had been good in there so I felt confident.  We ended up having great fishing, catching a ton of redfish early on.  We picked away at a few snook, but as the tide started to turn, the reds cooled off and the snook moved in!  We had a handful of nice size fish, and lost our two biggest unfortunately.  Tom hooked a nice juvenile tarpon too that we had on for a minute but he threw the hook.  Later on we moved and found a bunch more snook on a tree, and even a few trout as well in one of the creeks.   We gave it an extra 30 minutes of fishing as I was worried about getting through some areas with the tide, but no big deal.  All in all a great day.  It’s suppose to get into the 50s the next couple nights, so that should turn on our cold weather fishing.  Some bigger snook and drum should move in, and next week we have some more cold on the way too.  This is what we wait for in January!  I have plenty of openings starting Saturday, if you want to get out give me a shout.

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

Got out with Tim, Bridgette, and Sam today for a full day trip.  We headed out early and hit the backcountry.  I fished an island to start where we found some redfish on the previous afternoon.  They were waiting for us which was nice!  Took a little to get ’em going but we ended up catching close to thirty redfish in Islamorada on this morning.  After an hour or so of that, we made our way back to the creeks and canals of the mainland cape sable area.  I ran to the further end as I was thinking catching the tide change would be an ideal scenario.  We hit a couple spots and picked a few redfish and a black drum, not a whole lot going on though.  Water was still super muddy from the hard blow a few days ago.  As the tide rose we worked our way inside to some other spots.  Fishing got better, next stop we got some snook, a few more redfish, and a juvenile goliath grouper!  We made another move and got into some more snook and a few more reds.  Then one last move yielded even more snook and redfish.  It was good to see as when I fished back there in the morning yesterday, it was very slow.  However I think that was due to the sharp drop in temperature we experienced.  We do have some more cold coming later this week, however the fish should be more adjusted to it as it won’t be dropping from 80 degrees.  I have some openings starting this weekend and several next week.  Give me a shout if you want to get in on some of the winter time florida keys fishing!

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

Got out with Jake and Jason for the day.  We had a pretty stiff change in temperature, it had been in the 80s for a little bit here and last night it plummeted down into the low 60s.  Sharp drop in water temperature.  Sometimes this can make the fishing tough as the fish haven’t had time to slowly adjust as they usually do when we ease from summer, to fall, to winter, with more gradual cool downs.  Anyways water temps were in the high 60s and early in the morning nothing wanted to bite.  We jumped around from spot to spot, did get one black drum and a trout but that was it aside from some catfish.  Water was super muddy too with the hard west wind we had the day before as the front came in.  So we bailed and then tried to find some reds on the bottom of the tide around some flats.  Caught one in the first stop, but that was it.  We made one more big move and at first that seemed to not be producing.  But finally around 10:30 or so the tide began to change, and the fish started to bite.  We moved and picked away and ended up with about two dozen redfish.  After that we were in search of dinner, we tried an island for some snapper in the early afternoon.  However the redfish were swarming in the snapper hole!  We caught probably another 18 redfish here, and a few snappers but none that were big enough.  We tried a ditch for some trout, but it was loaded with ladyfish that we enjoyed bending the rod with.  Anyways all in all we caught a good amount of fish but really had to work for it.  I usually love the cold weather fishing, but I always tell people you have to catch it right.  When it’s been bordering on hot for a while and then all of a sudden you have a massive cool down, usually you are going to have a tough time.  However the fish should have had a chance to adjust now and we have some more cold weather on the way later this week, so it should get back into normal winter time mode here..

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

Fun day with Vito and John in the backcountry. The winds were kicking pretty good out of the west, and swung more north by the afternoon as we have a cold front coming in. Dropping back into the 60s tonight which will be refreshing. Fishing was pretty good. We found some redfish early on with the hard negative tide we had. We had to work around for them, pick and move, but all in all a decent bite we probably ended up with 20 or so in the first couple hours, plus some jack crevelle and ladyfish mixed in. As the tide bottomed out, we worked our way back to the creeks and canals of cape sable. It was a little bit of a beater getting their with some of the big swells coming off the gulf, but we made it no problem. Fishing was OK here too, no spots super red hot but we moved around several times and picked a few fish in each spot. The first stop Vito hooked a real nice snook that we lost on our biggest shrimp we had – funny as the same thing happened a couple days ago in a nearby spot the biggest snook we got on our biggest shrimp. I didn’t think we’d get another shot, but I put another good size shrimp on and he casted in the same area and boom we hooked another nice one! This one didn’t get away. It was a nice 30 incher. As I said we picked a few more fish in the next several spots mostly snook and redfish, but a few trout mixed in as well. After that we went and were going to try some high tide spots up on the flats, as the water was just getting high enough for the last hour of our fishing. But not much luck there many of the spots were total mud holes with the hard west wind and incoming tide we had rolling now. We bailed and caught a few snapper on the way home and called it a day! All in all though lots of fun, and I’ll be back at it tomorrow. Should be nicer with more of a north wind and a cool down, hopefully some of our creek fishing turns on hot with drum and snook!

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