Backcountry Fishing Reports

Well August is nearing it’s end boy time flies!  We are officially in ‘off season’ mode it feels like.  I can tell the last week or so the phone stopped ringing and the emails have stopped coming in.  Now through September is always a very slow time with business down here, October usually picks up a tad and then again in November.  But it’s a great time to come down because you really have the place to yourself!  We catch all difference species here year round, and we actually get some really good conditions in the late summer/early fall with calmer winds and such.  As of late I’ve been fishing a little bit but getting a few days off a week and we also were on vacation for 7 days or so.  The tarpon are still around and biting, today actually we saw hundreds of tarpon in a big school and managed to catch several of them, including an 80 and 120 lber, so some big ones believe it or not!  The tarpon fishing as of late I’ll say has been fair… it’s not the red hot pull-you-out-of-the-boat action we had in July, but if you put time in and find a good group of fish, you usually get a few shots.  We’ve had a little more wind than usual so that has also made things a little tougher though not terrible.  With the warm water temperatures, even a 15 mph breeze can really stir the sediment up and get things a little muddier than we like.  So sometimes you end up having to move around a bit more to try and find clean water for certain species of fish.  As we get into September like I said it’s usually dead slow.  I have a handful of days on the books already which is great, but I’m usually available short notice if you are looking to go.  I will shoot you straight and if it doesn’t look like it’ll be good, I’ll try and move your trip to another day or even let you bail out.  As I said tarpon can still definitely be a possibility as well as snook, redfish, tripletail, trout, snapper, and more in the backcountry.  Give me a shout and let’s go fishing!

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

July is nearing its end and this month has been all about one thing – tarpon!  I’ve had the best month as far as numbers go ever this year in July, and that record was shattered just after the 2nd week.  We had an insane everglades backcountry tarpon bite this July with tons of resident fish showing up in the channels and bays, plus ideal calm conditions for the majority of the month.  As I am writing this however we’ve just gotten on a spell of nasty southwesterly winds with thunderstorms about and did have my first day this month where we did not catch a tarpon.  But that’s not too bad after a 20 days streak of catchin’!  I had my biggest day ever this month as well, landing a total of 16 tarpon in one outing plus several more getting into double digits.  The monthly totals at this point are already over 100 tarpon landed (my previous best month being 66).  This is something that may only happen a good handful of times in a captains career!  I haven’t been doing a whole lot else aside from tarpon fishing, though we have gotten a handful of snook on days we’ve tried that, as well as a few tripletail that are floating around in the open water whilst looking for tarpon.  We did get a few nice trout the other afternoon as well when the tarpon fishing had dried up.  Anyways I am hoping we will have a fairly strong August if conditions get ripe again.  They do look to improve in the next couple days as winds get more into the southeasterly quadrant and back into the less than 10 mph range.  Of course with all the catchin’ going on I’ve been very busy and am booked through the end of the month and then going on vacation the first week of August.  But later in August can still be a good time to come.  If you are interested in fishing give me a shout I’ll likely have days available and will shoot you straight as I’ve had a super busy season so I really am just wanting to get out there when it’s good or at least seems like it’ll be!

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

June is rolling by fast and we are in full on summer time mode here in Islamorada.  It’s been calm and very warm but the fishing has been pretty good!  The month started off very slow with some very tough fishing and bad conditions with some westerly winds.  But lately I’ve been having to run a good bit further than normal to find the tarpon I’ve been catching, but it’s been excellent fishing once we get there.  Getting up extra early is mandatory for this trip.  Soon however I’m hoping some more fish will push into the more common ‘summer time’ areas that we normally fish into July and August where a 6 AM departure does the trick.  There have been a few fish in those areas as of now, but they’ve been shuffling around a lot and there has also been a lot of baby blacktip sharks which makes fishing for them very difficult as you are constantly battling to get through the sharks.  But not so in the deeper areas where I’ve been going the last couple weeks.  Other than tarpon there has been good sea trout and snapper in the bays.  Near the edge of the gulf the water has been absolutely beautiful and very lively with fish.  There has even still been some schools of spanish mackerel around which is weird to see in the summer but they are here.  Snook have been pretty good in some areas with some small redfish mixed in which are good to see too.  Tripletail are floating into the bay too closer to flamingo which are fun to cast to when you are looking for tarpon.  We saw loads of them in the channels a few days ago.  All in all summe time is a great time to fish here in Islamorada.  Get up early and beat the heat, and the fishing is usually well worth it.  Drop me a line if you want to go, I still have some open days in July and August I only have a handful of days booked as of now.

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

Well May is flying by and it’s hard to believe summer time is here yet again!  I’ve been very busy fishing just about every day.  Of course it’s prime time tarpon season so that is what I’ve been doing 95% of the time.  My islamoradatarpon.com blog has my daily reports concerning that.  But figured I’d give this one an update as well as it’s been a while.  The tarpon fishing has been stellar this year for the most part.  Though in the last month it’s gotten a little more hit and miss some days.  It is ‘prime time’ but that also means it is busy time so the pressure is high on these tarpon fish.  After getting beat up day and night for so long they get moody and it seems to be that there are windows where they seem to bite well and times when they aren’t doing much.  That’s why I often prefer fishing in the off season for them, however of course you aren’t as guaranteed to find them then though I’m usually fairly good at it as I focus on it a lot.  We had our first tropical storm of the season today and it’s been rainy for the last 10 days or so though we really needed it.  It hasn’t slowed the fishing down though and I think in the long run it will be a good thing.  Other then tarpon there has been some decent trout and snapper fishing in the bays.  I’ve caught a handful of snook and redfish too on some days when messing around with that.  As we get more into summer with calmer weather the snook bite should really turn on in the everglades.  We will also hopefully get some good permit action out in the gulf of mexico.  But June and July are still very good months for tarpon and again I am mostly focused on that.  The early morning everglades thing will be the norm for me for the next 4 or 5 months or so.  If you want to catch tarpon in the Florida Keys, give me a shout.  I often have availability more last minute especially as we get into July and August.

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

Tarpon fishing is in full swing here in Islamorada and the Florida Keys.  We’re having some of the best April fishing we’ve had in years.  All the late cold fronts in March seemed to have held up some of the big masses of tarpon and now we’ve had fairly light, warm weather since the beginning of the month.  Tarpon have shown up in absolute droves in the backcountry waters.  I mean we’re seeing thousands of fish – jumping, splashing, rolling, doing all the things tarpon do!  The action has been just as good as it gets, and we’ve had a couple days landing up to 6 fish!  The weather patterns look to be holding as well and for at least the next week things should stay the same on that front.  The bite may slow down some as these fish have been feeling heavy pressure, but I think it’ll still be good overall.  Many of these fish seem to be on the move too and the local bridgs and channels are starting to load up with fish.  The local bite recently had been a little tougher coming off the full moon.  Many of the fish were feeding heavily on shrimp at night and not biting as well in the day.  But from reports I’ve heard that bites been getting much better the last couple days.  Unfortunately I don’t have much for days left until the end of June, but I can definitely recommend some good islamorada tarpon fishing guides for you in April.  Though don’t sleep on our summer time fishing either – June and July are often two of my best months.  The conditions are usually really good most days and there are still plenty of resident fish to play with, plus a lot less guides on the water which has been driving me a little crazy as of late!  Drop me a line!

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