Backcountry Fishing Reports

Great day with Mark and Emily! Back on the water after a week off, fished a half day yesterday and had some good patch reef fishing. Today we hit the backcountry. Things cooled off a bit with a cold front the night before. It was definitely feeling like winter time for us. We had a great day catching fish every where we went. Lots of redfish which has been the case, but some decent size ones today. A handful of black drum and sheepshead too which are more of our cold weather friends. Snook weren’t quite as prevelant though we did get a good handful, along with Emily’s largest! Though the icing on the cake was some good little tarpon for both Mark and Emily, and also a trout for the honest backcountry slam! Fishing has been really good back there and nice to see it didn’t slow down a lick the last week I had off. We will be getting more into winter mode if we continue getting these fronts, but just because the weather is cold doesn’t mean the fishings not hot! Really some of my favorite fishing all year.

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

Lots of fish for da boys today. Had Ron, Ron, and Todd out. Father and sons. Ron Jr. Had fish with me several years ago on a group trip. We headed out early and caught our bait. I decided to try out the gulf since we had 3 people and I was waiting for the tide to come in a little in the backcountry. Fishing was decent out there, a handful of big mackerel and then lots of other things like trout, lady fish, snapper, Jack’s, bluefish, and more. Constant action and as it cools off more mackerel should show up. We checked a further spot in the gulf but it was a total mud hole out there so we didn’t even bother. We then hit the backcountry and found some nice snook fishing some shoreline. We caught 3 drifting and it was lots of fun. As the tide came in we tried some other areas in the creeks. We found some good snook and redfish in one of the channels back there. Fishing all the little run off with shrimp or pilchards produced for us. One of the drains held a ton of fish and we wore the boys out there with lots of snook and redfish. After that we tried some deeper corners in hopes of a big snook which we did not find, but we did get a few big trout. All in all another banner day, great to see some fish in a few different new spots. I’m off the next few days if anyone wants to go fishing should be good. Saturday is suppose to be nice and calm and should be on 🔥!

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

Got out with Jim and Randy today for a full day of backcountry fishing.  We brought shrimp and caught some pilchards too.  Headed out into the backcountry everglades after that.  It was the bottom of the tide, not much doing to start we caught 1 redfish in one spot and not much else.  We moved around in some canals and tried another corner without much luck, did have one good bite on a pilchard but didn’t connect.  After that we tried to jump into another area, however the tide was super low and we had to stop abruptly while on plane!  One of those areas you just don’t know how deep the water will be as it’s a blind corner and there wasn’t much water to get through.  Luckily the tide was starting to come in and after 30 minutes or so we were able to motor backwards and get back up on plane and make it through!  It paid off we got into a killer bite of redfish and snook.  Tons of fish just about every cast.  After an hour or so we moved on and got on another good redfish bite.  We probably caught close to 60 fish it was incredible.  Lots of small guys but a few good medium size snook.  After that the boys had enough so we headed home a little early.  But great fishing and lots of fun!  Fishing has been really good as of late, I’ll be back at it tomorrow so we’ll see what the day brings.  I know one thing I’ll be waiting until I try jumping into that area until there is a bit more water later in the morning!

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

Action packed day with Jim and Christine down from NC area. We caught some pilchards early and also brought see fresh shrimp and headed into the backcountry. Winds were blowing pretty good 15 knots out of the east. We had the bottom of the tide with incoming current all day long. We started hitting some branches and drains in the canals and right off the bat Christine got a nice snook! She followed it up with a few redfish too. We kept moving around and it was a solid pick of fish, Jim got in on the action too. Nice to see fish spread out it makes it fun working an area. We got a few black drums too and a nice trout for some variety. Later as the tide got higher we got into a red hot bite of redfish! Lots of small and medium guys just about every cast. Christine got a nice juvenile Goliath grouper here too. Then the snook showed up too which kept it interesting. We gave it a good hour there and then left them biting. We ran to try some shorelines for the last hour with our pilchards. Got into some more snook here and Jim caught a few decent sized ones. Also some more redfish. After that it was time to go we used every bait we had which was nice. Good action all day not a boring minute for sure.

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

Great day with Pat and Eric visiting from Texas. Nice northeast breeze and still cooled off from the front last week. We caught pilchards and had some shrimp and headed into the backcountry. First stop with high tide we checked and area for some snook and redfish. Boy did we get into them,. It was every cast for an hour and a half or so and we left them biting! Lots of small guys but one decent snook and one nice red, and did have another get eaten by a shark! After that we headed to another area to try some other stuff. Saw quite a few tarpon busting some baits, we tried drifting through there briefly but no action though we did get some nice trout here. We tried further offshore for some tarpon and did see a few but still not much interest. But we did get a big blacktip shark and a nice size lemon shark. Also some tripletail were floating by and we caught a few! Then we tried some other structure and got into some good jack crevelles. That was about all the wrote for the day but really good fishing it’s great to see. Definitely time to start mixing it up a bit, there are lots of options and the tarpon fishing will be sporadic. Off the next few days and going to Miami for the weekend them back at it next week!

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