Backcountry Fishing Reports

Got out with Jack and Sandy today for a full day of backcountry fishing.  It was super windy again but the wind swung around a little more south.  One of my least favorite wind directions!  Jack wanted to try and catch snook, and I said if we got the right bait (pilchards) we’d give it a good try.  Bait wasn’t easy it was super muddy with the wind, but we were able to get lucky and blind throw and caught probably 150 baits.  We made our way towards the cape and it didn’t look very nice over there… mud everywhere, typical with that wind direction.  We tried to find some areas tucked away inside.  We had one little tarpon suck a pilchard off in one area that was it.  No bites in the next couple stops.  We ran further back to try the shorelines on the western side of the mainland, in the lee of the wind.  Had one snook bite there but unfortunately it was while we had the rod in the holder and missed him.  We ran even further back to fish some other creeks, found a buddy of mine in one but he said fishing wasn’t great they had caught some trout while the tide was moving, but it was in the slow process of changing now.  We gave it 40 minutes or so and caught a couple trout and then bailed.  We ran all the way towards home, tried around an island for some snook but no bites there.  We then tried to catch the mackerels in the bay near home where they were biting good a couple days before.  But we never had a sniff there…  We tried a couple more spots locally in Islamorada for snook, and did manage to finally catch one and then had one other bite we missed.  Anyways very tough day, haven’t had one in a while but I guess I was due.  Tomorrow my anglers want tarpon so I’ll be sticking to that gameplan.

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

Got out today with Cary and Colin.  The winds were cranking hard east at 25 mph, blustery!  We caught some mullet in the morning and then headed to the tarpon grounds.  Fishing wasn’t easy there we had a weak incoming tide straight into the wind.  Found a few tarpon in a couple spots, the first stop they didn’t bite but the second stop Colin hooked and landed a nice 80 lb fish!  We also got a small shark and a big bluefish.  Mission accomplished!  We tried a couple spots nearby for some snook, but the water was too low to get to two of them even though it was high tide.  We are just on a low water tide cycle right now I suppose.  But we did find a spot that we were able to get to and had a couple big snook grab our pinfish we put out.  Unfortunately we weren’t able to land either one, the first got into some tree structure and broke us off.  The second just went through the leader… must’ve swallowed the hook.  Anyways at least we had a couple bites and they were both exciting!  After that we had to take our time getting into the gulf for the mackerels with the swells.  But we made it out there to the mackerel grounds.  We chummed and didn’t have much action aside from catfish for the first 30 or 40 minutes.  But I saw a few mackerel darting around so we tried switching up our tactics and got them to bite a little bit.  By the end they were biting OK and I think we landed 16 mackerels or so… not a bad way to end the day at all!  We headed on home after that.  Not a bad day all things considered.  Back at it tomorrow.

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

Had Steve and Jim again for day 2 of meat fishing here in Islamorada.  We stuck close to home since the bay was a little slow for us yesterday after snapper fishing.  We found some good mangrove snappers on the patch reefs early on, our live pilchards treated us well and we got our limit in an hour or so.  Jim got a real nice one the biggest of their trip, about 17 incher and 3 lbs.  We also had some smaller groupers, and a few small muttons and lane snapper.  Good action for sure!  After that we tried a few local islamorada snook spots.  Occasionally we get a few snook in certain areas close by, and with the pilchards you can actually catch them.  No snook in the first stop but did get a grouper, but the second stop we hooked two snook and caught one and plenty of jack crevelle.  After that we hit the bayside close by and caught plenty of spanish mackerel and more jacks.  The boys didn’t care to eat mackerel though so we didn’t give that too long maybe 40 minutes.  We hit another patch and found a few more lane snappers and a couple porgies, and plenty more mangrove snapper and other snappers too.  Jim caught a bonnet head shark and then also hooked a big blacktip on his light rod that gave us several cool jumps and broke off.  We also tried drifting our crabs for permit in a couple areas but no luck with that.  But all in all a great day the boys had about 14 fish for dinner and to take home.  I’ll be back at it tomorrow likely trying the mackerels and tarpon if they leave it up to me.  Stay tuned!

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

Got out with Jim and Steve today for a full day, two of my regulars down from Delray Beach area.  We are also fishing tomorrow for a full day.  They like meat fishing… table fare and aren’t interested in the big tarpon so we gave them a rest.  We caught some pilchards on the way out, good size baits so that was a nice way to start.  We found some decent size mangrove snappers around the islands, and got our limit of 15 inchers.  Had to work at it a little bit, but after a couple hours we were done.  Free lining pilchards to big snappers is a lot of fun and makes snapper fishing a lot more enjoyable, you don’t always catch the big numbers, but you do get the quality size fish.  After that we tried in the bay for trout.  It was tough though we tried a half dozen spots and never found any trout really, just a few small jacks and catfish.  I tried some of the spring time spots and even some of the winter time runoffs, since we are kind of between seasons now, but alas no luck.  We tried an area later for some mackerels nearby, as it was too windy to get to my usual mackerel spot at this point in the day.  We chummed but the mackerels didn’t show up there… but we did get some bigger jacks and catfish, and Jim got a nice blacktip on his shrimp on a light tackle rod which was a good fight.  Oh well at least the snapper fishing was good and we had a nice cooler of fish – mission accomplished!  Hopefully the wind will lay down tomorrow for these guys as it was blustery today.  If it does I’m sure we’ll try some of the patch reefs and maybe further gulf stuff.

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

Got out with Larry and his son Joe today for a full day charter.  We mixed it up and fished for mackerels early on in the gulf.  Fishing was very good we landed a couple dozen in little over an hour.  Nice falling tide out there, a little windy but not too bad for my seacraft boat!  After that we hit the channels to try for some tarpon.  The silver king was on Larrys bucket list, though he knew they weren’t always easy to catch.  I told him our conditions looked favorable and it was worth putting some time in, so we did.  It paid off, after about 45 minutes Larry hooked a nice 110 lb tarpon!  What a fighter and he put on an acrobatic show jumping all around.  He didn’t cooperate for pictures near the boat, but we had the leader multiple times for a technical release.  We did get some nice jumping shots though with larry in them as well.  After that Larry was rewarded with another tarpon about 30 minutes later, believe it or not!  Our lucky day!  This fish was about 140 lbs, a very large size tarpon for the florida keys.  We caught him fairly quick in about 25 minutes or so.  This time we took our time a bit more with the fish on the leader, and got some good release shots for Larry to remember.  After that things slowed down we tried to get Joe a tarpon but didn’t have a bit the last hour or so of fishing, though the tide did slow down on us.  Anyways a fabulous day and nice to see some early season tarpon around.  I’ll be doing more fishing for them soon as long as the weather stays warm, so be sure to check out my other website islamoradatarpon.com

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