Backcountry Fishing Reports

Another fantastic day with Graham and Steve in the Everglades today. Things really warmed up compared to yesterday and the wind was honking in Islamorada out of the southeast. However when we got a few miles into the bay first thing in the morning, it was slick calm. Sometimes this phenomena happens as the bay water is still super cold and it seems to kill the warm gulfstream winds. So made for a nice ride over and great fishing conditions early on. We caught fish in every stop today, some of course better than others. But a couple spots with just about all the snook and redfish you wanted! A few black drum, nice sea trout, and sheepshead mixed in as well. Graham got his PB snook about a 30 incher. We also caught a couple of very large look downs out in the near gulf which was an unexpected surprise! Graham kept one lookdown for a giataku print which he practices for fun, where they roll print the fish on rice paper. Just a great day on the water though, the winds did kick up later in the morning back there but not too bad of a ride home. Looks like tomorrow will be a little nastier and possibly Saturday, though another weaker cold front coming in Sunday to cool things off again. I’ll say it again fishing is just as good as it gets right now in the backcountry. Come on down before the crazy xmas week if you can, or of course January offers some of our best winter time fishing in the Keys. The frequent harsh cold fronts can bring out the large snook, drum, and redfish!

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

reat day fun fishing with my dad Richard Stanczyk Sr. and wife Elizabeth Baxter! We hit the ‘glades early as we had a cold front the last couple of days chill things down again. This often gives us some great opportunity at quality size fish in the backcountry! We had falling tide all day long and were loaded up with shrimp. We fished sevearl areas hard early on, nothing was red hot we had to put our time in, but all of them seemed to hold a handful of fish. We started the day off with a nice big black drum of 20 to 25 lbs! These ‘big nasty’ creatures seem to bite best on some of our coldest days of the year and when the biggest ones come out to play. You can see the mustad fishing chartreuse darter jig in his mouth, these wide gap hooks are perfect when you may have a shot at a larger size fish. After some more hard work, my dad got a couple of real nice size snook on our SpinFisher Vs! We caguht a good handful of nice size trout as well, and then a few smaller snook and drum. We moved around and found a few more drum and snook in a couple different areas. Nothing red hot though again seemed each spot held a handful. We moved to another area and set up and then we got on a decent bite of snook and redfish. We gave it a bit there and then worked our way towards home. We decided to stop and fish an area I hadn’t fished in a long time as we had a negative tide situation. The cold fronts often help push the water out of the bay, and at low tide the flats get exposed really trapping fish in some of the runoffs where it is slightly deeper. We got into the area and then just started bailing redfish! It was awesome to see, nothing huge but just about every cast. We didn’t stay long as I was just testing to see if fish were there, and they were very nice to see. We headed on home after that. Things started to warm back up and the wind was more easterly. Looks like it’ll swing more southeast tomorrow and likely continue to warm up… Then another weaker front on Saturday and chilly for a few nights. It’s definitely winter time here in the Florida Keys, but the fishing is hot!

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

Got out with Mike today for a 3/4 day.  He wanted to try and catch snook or tarpon.  I told him snook shouldn’t be too difficult right now, tarpon we may have a shot but it’s of course hit and miss with the cooler water temperatures.  We left early and tried some of the cold weather spots to start as there was very good fishing there yesterday.  Today however things warmed up considerably and the water was back near 70 degrees.  We had a bit of action to start with a snook and a redfish and a few trout, however that was about it.  I was hoping we’d maybe get some larger ones but none of the big boys that were around yesterday while it was still cold.  We moved around and then got on a decent redfish and black drum bite, picking a good handful of fish, and a few snook as well.  Mike got a decent snook here as well just before we were about to pack it up!  We ran back to another area on the bottom of the tide to catch the start of the incoming.  A couple quick stops without much, then the next stop we got the biggest snook of the trip, nothing monstrous but a decent 6 lber.  I was hoping we’d have enough water to get into another area however with the negative tide and only have about 45 minutes left, I didn’t think we’d get where I wanted to go.  So we tried some other grounds I had not fished in a while.  It turned out to be fairly productive.  We caught about 5 snook in one stop, then a couple more in the next stop, and then a couple decent redfish in the 3rd and final stop… all in the same stretch of creek.  So good to see.  Not a bad day at all with probably a good 16 snook, dozen reds, and 8 black drum.  I’m off tomorrow and then pretty much wide open all week!  Looks like we’ll have a couple more cold fronts, dropping us back down into the 50s.  That should be good for our big snook and big black drums in the ‘glades.  These are the days I look forward to.  Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday should all be good for those braving the cold winds and wanting to leave the dock a little early.  Might even take one of those days for myself!

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

A little cool off again yesterday and some of the bigger fish we like to see showed up! I had Matt and Adrienne down from Port Charlotte, visiting for a wedding. The winds laid down somewhat though still a little breezy. Negative tides out back so you really need to pay attention running around! We had plenty of nice, healthy snook with several drag screamers. A fair number of black drums as well, including one of those “big nasties”, a 30 lb monster! Not so many redfish for us today but a handful of little guys. We did get a few nice trout and sheepshead as well. Adrienne had really wanted a tarpon, and we did see a good handful but they were unresponsive. So it goes especially when it’s cold! However all in all, a lot of fun. By late morning it had warmed up considerably and it was time to take the jackets off. Matt booked me for May next year during prime tarpon time, so we can go after the silver king!

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

Day 2 with Scotlands own Ricky Walker and Paul Young. We had slick calm conditions today, prefrontal with another cold front coming in over the next 24 hours. I had stocked up on some bait the last couple days knowing we’d have a couple slick days and the big tarpon might show up. Yesterday we saw a decent amount but they did not respond for us. Today though we got into a gaggle of them early in the morning. We didn’t have much tide though and as we waited for it to switch, the group of fish definitely seemed to spread out. We moved around and kept at it for a couple hours. We caught some big blacktip sharks to keep us busy, then just as we were almost going to call it quits, Ricky’s rod went off and a monster tarpon went airborne! We chased him down and Ricky fought him well. We got him on the leader within about 15 minutes, but boatside he just did not want to roll over for us. Every time we thought we had him about ready to get a quick picture, he’d take off and try to go under the boat or back out again. Finally we subdued the fish and got a few pictures, but unfortunately we didn’t get many good ones before the fish went berserk and snapped the line whilst we had him leadered. Big fish are so tough to get good pics of because you don’t want to wear them down until they are lifeless, and all it takes is a few good tail kicks to get under the boat and snap! But we got a few decent shots anyways. A thrilling catch for the middle of winter here in the Keys, but flat calm conditions they can show up in a hurry any time of year! After that we caught some redfish in the shallows which was good. We tried a few gulf spots and caught a nice 40 lb goliath grouper out there but did not see much else. We tried another area for some big critters and got caught in the wreck on another goliath, and had a big shark that we pulled the hook on. We decided to try a few spots I hadn’t been to on the way home, and found some nice trout and redfish in there too which was good to see. Anyways another fantastic day and awesome to get a big tarpon, have not caught one that size in quite a few months. Off tomorrow then back at it Friday, but plenty of days open after that for the next week, including this weekend! Fishing has been stellar and the usual winter time stuff should continue to be so.

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