Backcountry Fishing Reports

What a day with Mike and his son Chase! Chase fishes some bass tournaments in college and was looking forward to doing some saltwater fishing down here. The winds laid down nicely from yesterday, it was near flat calm in the backcountry. Often this happens when the water is a little chillier back there, the wind can be blowing on the atlantic side but really changes as it gets over the colder bay. It looked like conditions where big things could happen. We started off looking for redfish and snook on the top of the tide. Very stirred up in a lot of areas from all that wind we had, but we picked a couple reds in several spots and lots of jacks. Eventually we got on to a better bite but it took a little bit to get going. But we ended up getting into the reds pretty good and actually quite a few snook as well! Nothing huge but some reds up to 18/19 inches, and some snook up to 25 inches or so. The tide was getting low after a bit though and we then had to keep moving! Next stop we found a couple nice black drums to pull on and another redfish. Lots of catfish here too but to be expected with how muddy the water was. But we got what we were after! We then decided to check out the gulf as it was slick calm out there now. We looked at the buoys for some tripletails but did not see a whole lot. We did see a handful, but unfortunately they were a little spooky for us and didn’t eat before shutting off on us. We made a stop on a spot to look for something quality where some boats were just leaving and figured we’d give it a shot for something nice. We caught a few jack crevelles, then all of a sudden a big cobia chased the jacks right up! Next cast, Chase was hooked up to a cobia and another one followed him up along with a permit! We pitched at the second fish a few times, and eventually got him to eat too but he didn’t stay buttoned on. After a 30 minute battle though, Chase landed his cobia, close to a 40 lber on 20 lb spin tackle! His biggest fish ever! We got some pics and let her swim away as the boys didn’t want to keep any fish and I like to get some good fishing karma. We motored back and had one pinfish we put out. After about 10 minutes we hooked a few more jacks and same thing, another cobia came barging in after them! Mike reeled his pinfish up in front of him and soon he was hooked up too! Again another good battle and we landed Mikes fish as well, which was a personal best size fish for him too! It was all smiles after that, we looked for some tripletails on the way home and did have one more shot but the fish just stared down our shrimp before swimming off. But all in all a banner day, the boys want to come back to do some tarpon fishing next year and I look forward to that!

Lots of fish today for Andy, Zack, and Alec! I just got back in town from spending Christmas with my in-laws. We had to extend our trip so I was back a day late. But the fish were ready and waiting for us. Quite a windy day I guess it’s been cranking since I’d been gone. The boys wanted some dinner so we focused on that. Snappers we’re thick though lots of little guys, though after some moving around and persistence we wound up with some nice keepers. After that we picked a few redfish off a couple spots. As the tide fell we got into a hot trout bite! Lots of trout on artificial which was fun and a handful of nice 18 to 20 inch fish. Later in the day as the tide got closer to bottoming out, we got into the redfish really good! Not quite every cast but every couple minutes we caught one and a few nice size ones as well. After that it was time to head home but an action packed day and plenty of food for the table. Back at it tomorrow looks like the winds will be laying down somewhat so looking forward to that. I have a couple open days on the 30th and 31st, and after New year’s. If you want to get out give me a shout, fishing is still very good!

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

Well the weather man was wrong, today was suppose to be rainy and super windy. It was windy but just a normal spring like day blowing 20 to 25 south. The rain held off but is coming tonight. I had Ernie, Michael, and Andy down to fish. We did some snapper fishing early which was very good. Some nice size fish on cut bait and a few redfish mixed in as well. We had though we may just do a half day if the rain came, but it stayed nice so we decided to venture into the backcountry. We did very well back there, tons of redfish as expected and a couple snook, a juvenile Goliath grouper, and some nice jack crevelles. We hit multiple spots and they were all pretty good. I thought the south wind may mess it up a little, but the fish didn’t seem to mind today. Looks like tomorrow will probably be best to stay home, 40 mph west wind. I’m leaving town Saturday but looks like it’ll get nice again right away. If you are looking to come down after Christmas, I still have a couple days open between that and New year’s. Give me a shout and have Merry Christmas!

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

12/18/18 – Yesterday I fished a half day and we stuck close to home.  We hit the patches which were really good, lots of porgies and mangrove snappers, with a few other odds and ends.  We had barrucda on our list of species to try for so we did that too.  I tried hard to catch pilchards early on, but it was a little difficult.  We did get a few though, and we threw the net some more to get some ballyhoo later while we were fishing.  We hooked several cudas, landed one on a shrimp and jig, but the rest were cutting us off unfortunately.   Could not get them to eat the wire leader so we were fishing mono with circle hooks, hoping there teeth wouldn’t get it, but no luck.  But still lots of fun we did hook a nice 15 lb cuda that jumped multiple times on the light tackle which was a blast.  Lots of fish for dinner and still an all around great day!

12/19/19 – Fun day with Spencer, will, and Fisher. Spencer fished with me years ago right when I first had my boat redone. Today we had nice conditions with low tide first thing and incoming water most of the day. A little better today flow than a few days ago too. Winds were not bad northeast going to southeast in the afternoon about 15mph. We had great fishing. Bailed the redfish in the first two places, with some trout mixed in there as well. Fisher also got a flounder which is a little bit of a rare catch for us here in this area.  On the second stop Will got his first snook which he wanted, a nice 10 or 11 lber. Fisher got s nice black drum too but pulled the hook near the boat. After that we went up in the sticks to try some spots. More redfish here but Will got one more snook. It seemed hard to find snook but reds were every where we went! We tried a couple more stops on the way back towards home and more redfish in both of them. I think we caught over 100 reds today, no joke! Anyways lots of fun and laughs, the boys are offshore fishing again Saturday. Looks like the next couple of days might be blowouts… 40 mph winds on Friday, and 30 tomorrow with a lot of rain. Of course I’m meeting my customers at the dock in the AM, we will try to get out for at least half a day tomorrow as they have me the next two days. Everyone be safe out there!

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

Day 2 with Pride and his son Nick.  Yesterday was flat calm and just a perfect day.  Today we had a bit more wind though nothing crazy, but a steady 10-15 mph northwest breeze.  It cooled off a bit too, nothing extreme but got back into the low 60s last night.  We decided to try the cape sable creeks and canals.  We got there and I expected fishing would be pretty good, however it seemed to not be the case!  We tried a good amount of spots in several areas.  A couple produces a handful of fish, but just a few.  A small snook and juvenile goliath in one spot, and another spot we picked maybe 4 or 5 reds and that was about it.  A couple spots that looked good had nothing at all!  Though we had weird tide it was a very weak current, and medium/high water levels, plus the westerly direction of the wind I think kind of mudded up some of the areas.  So it didn’t seem very productive in there.  We bailed and we hit another area where we got into a decent snook bite, although nothing real big though we did lose one nice one.  A handful of redfish here as well.  We found a good load of redfish in another area though, including a few real nice size fish over 24 inches!  Later on we got a handful of black drums maybe 5 or so, and Nick got 2 very respectable snook, one of 12 lbs and one that was probably 16 lbs.  Great way to end the day and Pride and Nick were thrilled with two great days of fishing.  I’ll be back at it tomorrow I think I just have a half day, then fishing through until I leave Saturady for the holidays.  Looks like Thursday and Friday may be nasty weather but of course we all know you don’t really know until it gets here.

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