Backcountry Fishing Reports

Great day with return clients David and Kathy today!  We headed out into the backcountry towards Flamingo with some shrimp.  Caught some pilchards on the way, it was slick calm and the bait finally showed back up heavily after disappearing since the last cold front.  We loaded up and hit the creeks.  Bottom of the tide with a nice incoming current.  We picked around, catching a few fish off each spot.  Nice way to fish as it keeps it interesting, picking and moving.  We never got into any big rally of fish, as we’d been finding tons of little redfish the last several trips back there.  But today just a handful in each spot as I said, and they were larger fish too!  We made out good catching about 2 dozen fish in there altogether plus a baby goliath grouper.  After the tide got higher and we had a little time left, we decided to run out and try a spot on the way home.  Found some more redfish here and a couple more snook as well.  Topped our day out with about 30 fish, just fantastic fishing so nice to see.  It’s been really good and I think will continue to be.  I have some days open after Thanksgiving weekend, and plenty in the first couple weeks of December too.  It’s a great time to come as it’s still offseason so you get the place to yourself as oppose to being here in season when it’s busy.  Give me a shout if you want to get out on the water!

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

Got out with Joey and Casey for a full day today.  We headed out into the backcountry early with our shrimp.  Things warmed up a bit from the last couple days though still a little chilly in the AM.  The first couple spots we did not find much, and one of those spots the no-see-ums ate us alive!  Yesterday we had good fishing there but today it just warmed up a little too much and we were in the lee of the wind, so it was buggy.  We ran and checked out a different area, and did well.  Slow pick to start but eventually it was almost every cast with redfish and a few snook mixed in.  We found reds in several more areas, and all of them same thing once they got going it was all the action you wanted.  We tried a spot out in the gulf offshore for some mackerels later in the afternoon, but did not have any luck with that.  Though we did get some jack crevelles and blue runners out there.  We caught one more snook on our way in.  All in all another good day, back at it tomorrow with a half day shark trip.  I’m busy through next weekend, but have some openings next week and then plenty of days available in December.  Give me a shout the everglades backcountry fishing in Islamorada is really good and should stay that way.

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

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