Backcountry Fishing Reports

Fun day with Krystal and Jon visiting from Canada. We had a late departure as their flight was delayed. But no matter… We still crushed the fish! Saw a few tarpon early on but they were not responsive, water is still a little chilly but it was flat calm. We did get some nice blacktip sharks though. After that we found some redfish and a few snook. Still really good fishing reds on almost every cast on our artificials! Nice to see these fish in the bay again. Later on we ventured further out and found some tripletails which are fun sight casting too. My buddy Capt. John was battling a nice Goliath grouper and we got a picture of them. We tried some other areas for tarpon but still no luck though we did get a big sting Ray. We caught a few more snook in another spot and then tried one last hole where we get a few big critters on occasion and got a nice Goliath for Krystal ourselves to finish out our day! We followed one of my fellow captains in as he had some motor trouble but everyone got home safely.

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

Joel and Alan had a fantastic day out on the water with me today. The winds let up it was a little southeasterly early but then got near slick calm in the backcountry by late morning. We had very good fishing for redfish with some snook mixed in as well and Joel got a black drum too. Really wore the boys out it’s been very nice to see so many fish. After that we caught a few mullets and headed out into the gulf to try some structure. No luck on those spots but we did catch a half dozen triple tails while running around which was cool to mix it up. We did pull the hook on a nice big 10 lber, but a good fight none the less and the boys were practicing catch and release so no heartbreak there! We then found some more snook and a few redfish along some shorelines, solid action again! We tried one more hole for something big as the weather really slicked out and the water looked nice and clean. Joel did get a big sting ray and a nurse shark, but nothing super exotic. Anyways still a great day, fishing is so good right now! Looks like we’ll have some flat calm weather the next couple days, tarpon could show up who knows! I’m fishing the next two days, then I have a good stretch of openings until mid December. So if anyone wants to go, it’s really as good as it gets right now don’t miss out!

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

Another great day this time with Tat, Bob, and Bobby. The boys were visiting from Oklahoma and hadn’t been saltwater fishing before. They were excited to see what it was all about. I told them fishing had been good, though we had a big condition change with the wind swinging hard south/southeast and warming up a lot from the last couple of days. I had a gameplan though that I thought they’d enjoy for some variety. We headed on out and found some good redfish and snook action on some shorelines. Lots of mullets splashing around and the fish were happy. We worked the area for a good couple hours, catching doubles and triple headers almost as much as you wanted. We even went to artificials for a while to try and up the difficulty and it was still almost every cast! After that we caught a few of those mullets to have some fresh cut bait or little livies if we needed them. We hit the gulf after that, and got into a mess of jack crevelles. I was hoping some mackerels would be out there but we only caught one of them. We did have a good pack of cobias swim up though… quickly we grabbed a rod and hooked up a small finger mullet. We got sucked off, but luckily got another shot a little later and Tat hooked up. While he fought it another one swam back up and Bobby casted a big shrimp and hooked one as well – double header! We got them both up for pictures and it was a blast on light tackle. After that we tried some other mackerel grounds and caught one more mackerel there but that was it! Have not had much luck with the mackerels yet, thankfully a lot of our other fishing has been very good! We ran to one other spot and caught some nice mangrove snappers for dinner, and a few trout and ladyfish as well. Just a great day with a bunch of variety and some dinner for the boys, one they won’t soon forget. They are going offshore fishing the next couple days including one day swordfishing with my brother, thankfully the wind will be laying down some for them for that. Fishing is really good and still plenty of days open in early/mid December, give me a shout while it’s hot! Back at it tomorrow.

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

Wow what a day fishing with our friends Ricky Walker and Paul Young visiting from the UK. Years ago they both did a show that aired all over the UK called Hooked on Fishing and had show several shows with my father Richard Stanczyk Sr. We’ve remained good friends through the years, and Ricky had visited this year in April with his son and we had a good day catching snook and tarpon. Paul got to tag along this time. We still had the cold water from the recent cold front, and light northeast winds, which I was hoping would be a good recipe for some great fishing. We hit it right and it was action packed all day long! All throughout the tide, everywhere we went there seemed to be fish! We started the day with a very healthy snook and then a smaller one. Then we got a few more black drums and snook. Another area was loaded with nice seatrout – all healthy looking specimens and definitely keeper size though we released them all. Later on we got into absolute pile of redfish as the tide started to fall. And nice size reds for us too, not many little guys as had been around often in the warmer temperatures. These were all slot size fish and some above. We even had a 30 something incher swim right under the bow we could see on the surface, it was amazing! Then we got into some tarpon action which was awesome. Our Mustad Fishing jigs with our PENN Fishing SpinFisher Vs did the trick and we landed all of our tarpon on the mustad 1/4 oz jigs! Paul had just been asking about whether or not tarpon would bite in this cold, I said not often but your best bet is with a nice big shrimp. As things started to warm slightly, they got a little active and my dad caught two and then Paul got himself one as well! While Paul caught his we doubled up on nice redfish too which made for a wild triple header! We decided to kind of wrap it up at that point and we checked a few things I had not fished in a while but did not have much luck there. But a good day to try as we had already had a killer day! Just what a magical day these two brought some good luck with them that is for sure. We will be getting some south/southeast wind tomorrow and a lot warmer for a few days, then another front mid week though I don’t think we’ll get a major temperature drop. Might mix up the fishing over the weekend with the south wind but when it calms down then goes north later this week, should be real good.

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

Chilly morning today with our second front of the winter season! It dropped down in the mid 50s the last couple nights and water temperatures plumetted. This can some times be very good for our snook and drum fishing, though the temperature fluctuations, tide, and water quality play a big role in when and where they want to feed. Today we hit it right and had steady action all day. The snook were definitely in shock mode, we caught quite a few but they were very light bites and they didn’t make big runs like they normally do. The redfish bit pretty well and we had a variety of sizes of them. Just a handful of black drums, was thinking we’d get more of them with the cold. And plenty of sheepshead which was nice to see. We did get a nice snook for Ann at the end of the day too. All in all a fabulous cold weather fishing day here in Islamorada. Back at it tomorrow. I do have some openings next week in early December if anyone wants to get out there, should be good fishing!

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