Backcountry Fishing Reports

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

Got out with my dad and marina manager Stephen Byrd for a day of fun fishing.  I just got back in town from vacation myself after a week.  Looks like a busy week coming up and it was such a nice day so wanted to take them while I could.  We did a little bit of experimental stuff and hit  some deep gulf wrecks, areas I hadn’t been since the storm.  We did catch one nice big snook on the way out in the ‘glades, so that was cool.  Also saw plenty of tarpon in that area, which we didn’t mess with but will likely give it a shot in the next few days.  The gulf water looks great, nice color and quite a bit of bait on several spots.  However there just wasn’t much life as far as quality fish went, and a few spots had disappeared.  We did find some nice sheepshead on one spot with a ton of little mangrove snapper as well, got one sheep to eat and got a nice one.  Lots of fog out there too which was really cool, it really enveloped us and you could hardly see through it for a while.  Saw a few tripletails but didn’t spend much time on them as we were making a 60 mile run one way.  We hit a few other spots on the way back, and no life on either of them.  I was surprised because it seemed like the type of day where there would’ve been some good fish out there.  We looked in some channels on the way home and found a few more tarpon in there, caught a nice pompano on a jig messing around, and called it a day.  Anyways I think tomorrow we will do some mackerel fishing early I know thats been productive lately, and then give the tarpon a try after that.  But it was cool to get way out there and at least I know there is still some structure in a few of those areas way out in the gulf.

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

Got out with Bo today after having to cancel the last two days.  My customers yesterday had some health issues so didn’t feel up to going and I didn’t blame them as the winds were howling 35 mph.  The day before really wasn’t all that bad but I let my customer off the hook to rebook since he was local in south florida.  But normally 20 mph winds we don’t bat an eye at.  Today was honking though 35 mph again, but really wasn’t all that bad with the ride.  Wind direction plays a big role, and it was east so it’s much easier to hide from and there are only a few spots where you have to just go slow and ride easy in the waves, and the majority of the ride into the backcountry you can stay in 2-3 feet of water and it’s calm and fairly dry.  Fishing started out slow we picked away at a few black drum and trout.  Not red hot we just caught a handful of each the first couple hours.  We eventually hooked a big tarpon which was fun but he got off after about a minute.  We tried a few other areas tucked way up inside some creeks later, but not much luck in either of those just 1 trout.  We went back where we started and caught a few more drum so that was nice.  But as the tide started to fall we got into a very good snook bite a little later.  And when I say good it was insane!  Every cast Bo was hooking up for the last hour of the day, I didn’t keep count but he caught probably 2 dozen or so!  A lot of little guys, but a handful of 4 to 6 lbers which were nice!  He also had another little tarpon on for a second that threw the hook.  Just amazing!  Right time, right place, sometimes that is where you have to be.  Just goes to show you, you don’t know unless you go.  We can fish in just about any condition here in the islamorada backcountry, especially in a big comfortable boat like mine.  As long as it’s not dangerous with lightning, wind we can work with.  Fishing may not always be red hot like this but it can be.  But that is true with any day of the week!  Anyways I’ll be out of town for a little while now to go skiing, but I’ll be back next weekend.  Hopefully there will still be a few fish around when I get back here.

Also early this morning we saw this crazy fish, not sure what it was but looked like an alien!  Check him out!  A few people have said possibly a batfish or flying gunard…  I dunno he looked like he was straight out of the movie alien to me.

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