Backcountry Fishing Reports

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

Great day with Kale, Trey, and Dillard. Winds were not too crazy to start but started cranking late morning to 25 mph! Noaa got it wrong. Didn’t slow the fishing down too much though. We hit a spot on low tide first thing in the morning, a little tricky getting in with the negative tide but we made it. We picked a few reds there but not a whole lot. We then ran and hit the creeks. Fishing was pretty good here and quite a few snook which was our target species. No big packs but we caught a good handful in each spot really. A few reds mixed in and a nice juvenile Goliath too. Trey got the biggest snook of the day, picture doesn’t do it justice but Id say a solid 12 lber. Lots of crocodiles out on the prowl back here and we saw someone who got stuck in the mud the day before and the tow boat had to pull them off! Afterwards we hit another area on the way home on the top of the tide, and good luck there lots of reds, a good handful more snook, and a couple black drums, trout, and Jack’s. All in all we beat them up pretty good nice to see the fishing so solid back there with not so great conditions. Taking a day off tomorrow I caught a cold fromy boy, hopefully back at it Friday.

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

Fun day today with lots of action! Ethan caught his first redfish and many, many more. Along with some trout, black drum, and snook. We wanted to keep the rods bent so we only really made a couple moves all day but the fish kept us busy. I hope everyone has a happy new year and gets to go out fishing soon in 2019! Fishings great and I have availability in January starting on the 2nd, so give me a shout if you wanna get out!

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

Great day with Brian and Becky! They were down for a wedding and suppose to fish with my brother last week but got blown out with the crazy wind. He saw I was available today last night so he called and we set it up! We did a 3/4 day, he really wanted to catch a redfish and I said it shouldn’t be a problem. We got into them really good, catching them on shrimp and artificial! We got one small snook as well. After that, we had a good bit of time still left and Brian was interested in tripletail too. We didn’t see many yesterday but said we could probably find a few. We did and we missed one, but the second one he got not a huge one but a tripletail none the less. We checked a few spots for cobia after that without much luck, but plenty of small jacks there. We got lucky and found a bigger tripletail later which we got, very nice! We saw a school of bonita chasing some ballyhoo which was cool too, but no luck getting them to bite. We headed home after that, all in all a great morning and mission accomplished with two target species catches! I’ll be back at it tomorrow then I have some availability in early January, fishing is still good of course so give me a shout! It’s a great time to fish and the crowds will be thinning after new years.

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