Backcountry Fishing Reports

Got out for a day of fun fishing with my wife Elizabeth Baxter today.  It was slick calm and there was a slight chance of rain, but most of it went by early in the morning.  It stayed overcast all day and looked like a real ‘fishy’ day!  The creeks I knew would be very buggy with no wind and a warming trend.  We tried a few areas near the mouths of some creeks, and the bugs definitely were coming out but not too bad there in the open areas anyhow.  Fishing was a little slow to start, we managed one nice black drum in the first stop and a trout.  Nothing in the next stop.  And then we worked a whole shoreline for about an hour and only got one other black drum there.  It looked really good too I was surprised!  After that we continued further back into the everglades up the southwestern coast of the mainland.  We tried a few pieces of structure in the gulf, no luck there but did mark a few fish on my garmin bottom machine which got me excited but never had a bite.  We tried a few other creeks up here since it was getting later in the day and figured the bugs wouldn’t be as bad.  They were still around, but not the nasty noseeums these were small flies that didn’t really bother you too much so they were bearable.  Anyhow we didn’t get anything in these two creeks in the first couple stops.  We did find a few trout inside one at a different spot though.  No snook, redfish, or drum though!  We worked our way back towards the area we were fishing earlier, and got on a good spot that can produce when it is colder temperatures.  Surprisingly nobody was there though as soon as we pulled up another boat was steaming to get over there but we were first luckily.  The other day I fished here and we caught a bunch of trout and a handful of drums.  Today the tide was down more and the conditions just looked more ‘right.’  We caught quite a few black drum here, 3 redfish, 1 snook, a sheepshead, and probably 10 trout or so.  Really good fishing for sure!  I was hoping we might get a big lunker black drum, but not to be today.  Anyways we called it a day after that, I was glad we got to see the everglades on such a gorgeous day.  My wife doesn’t get to go back there nearly as much as I do so just being there is good enough for her.  But was definitely glad we got to finish up with a bunch of fish too!  Just goes to show you some times you can work hard all day and not produce much, and then you get in the right spot at the right time, and can make your whole day of fish in under an hour sometimes.  But some times that is tough when you are competing with other boats and such as most of them want to be in those same spots too!

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

Tom called me yesterday evening and wanted to get out today.  I said no problem I had the day open and the conditions looked pretty favorable.  He was down visiting from New York, and did a lot of stiper and bass fishing up there.  He was hoping from some drum and snook.  We got out early and made our way back into the everglades mainland areas.  A couple boats were ahead of us on one of the spots that has held some snook.  It’s been tough to get there though especially over the busy weekend.  Anyways I knew both of the other captains and they were nice enough to try and let me slide in.  We gave it 20 minutes or so, and while they were both catching some fish here and there we weren’t able to get a bite!  Must’ve just been the angle we were coming in at, but thats funny some times we were literally casting at the same spot.  I didn’t want to crowd them any more or be rude, so we trolling motored out of there and continued on.  The next stop we had a ton of actoin with some nice sea trout!  Not a spot we normally get a lot of trout but they were there today.  We picked away at a few black drums too, nothing huge but got one here and there.  Probably ended up with about 8 drums and 20 or so trout!  We tried another area after that nearby without much luck.  I gave Tom the option of trying other stuff, or going back where we had the drum and trout action.  He was really hoping for a snook so we ran back towards where we had came from.  No luck at the spot we tried first thing in the morning, so we hopped around in some other areas and worked them hard.  After a couple spots we did find one nice snook but unfortunately he threw the hook on a jump!  Dang!  I gave it a little extra time, as we were only fishing a 3/4 day and wanted to try to get Tom his snook.  But fate didn’t have that in store for us, we tried a couple other spots with no luck, but the last cast Tom did get a nice redfish off the last stop!  At least that made it worthwhile.  Anyways not too bad of a day, not a ton of the fish we were looking for, but a good handful and plenty for one guy.  I thought with it getting so nice after being so cold today would’ve been the day that the fishing really ‘went off’ and they would’ve been biting everywhere.  But not the case.  They did get pounded pretty hard the last few days being the weekend, so maybe the fish just need a break.  Anyways I may go fun fishing with the wife tomorrow, then nothing on the books until early next week!  If you want to go give me a shout, conditions look decent suppose to stay cool but not too cold.

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

Got out with Jody and Tom down from St Louis for a full day today.  They left St Louis in the single digits to escape to sunny warm florida for a few days.  Unfortunately the cold weather followed them, but luckily it was still much warmer then back home.  The last few nights have been super cold (for us) getting down to around 50 degrees in the Keys, and around 40 back in the everglades mainland areas where we like to fish this time of year.  We didn’t leave too early as with the cold sometimes it pays to wait for it to warm up slightly, especially when it is extremely cold like this.  Water temperatures were in the low 50s when we got there, brrr!  It was busy back there too there were probably 20 boats around throughout the day.  We got on a good spot early on and while it wasn’t a red hot bite, we steadily picked away for a couple hours to start the day.  Redfish, black drum, and sheepshead were had.  Every so often the fish would rally and we would catch a few, then it would slow down with nothing for 20 or 30 minutes, then they’d start again.  For what our conditions were and with it being so busy, I’d definitely take it!  We found a few more reds on another spot, then tried somewhere without much luck at all for a while.  Then before it was time to go we hit a good cold water snook area.  Though today the snook were not there but we did get a trout and another black drum.  I’m sure in a few more days the snook will show up in force, but probably need that water temperature to rise a few more degrees…  low 60s is usually the magic number for that to happen when it rises up from the 50s.  Maybe by monday or tuesday I’m thinking…  Good news is I’m not booked for a little bit now, so if you want to go give me a shout.  Like I said early next week looks to be good conditions with a warming trend after a hard cold snap.  Those are usually the days you dream about.  Give me a shout!

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

Got out with Aastin today who was visiting down from NJ to escape the cold -2 temperatures!  Unfortunately the weather followed him as we are experiencing some of the coldest weather we’ve seen since 2010!  Temperatures dipped to around 50 degrees here last night and got to around 40 in the backcountry everglades areas.  Water temperatures back there were a chilly 54 degrees in some areas, brrr!  Also it was blowing a good 20 mph on the ride over, so definitely needed to bundle up and break out the ski gear.  Once we got over it wasn’t too bad though and the sun came out.  Fishing was a little slow for us there.  We managed a handful of black drum and a sheepshead.  Didn’t seem like a whole lot was going on early, so we headed back towards Islamorada to finish our day on the patch reefs.  Luckily that fishing was really good we caught a bunch of various snappers including lanes, muttons, and yellowtails.  Also plenty of yellow bar jacks.  I heard the backcountry bite did turn on somewhat a little later after we left, things warmed up slightly and the tide turned (figures!).  Some times it’s hard to sit and wait it out though when you haven’t caught a whole lot in a few hours and you know you only have so much time left.  Anyways that could likely be the trend the next few days with the temperatures dipping down to a little colder even tonight, likely be an afternoon bite tomorrow!  Anyways we still had a fun day and caught some fish and Aastin got to see some cool stuff like crocodiles and plenty of wild birds.  I’m off tomorrow and back at it Saturday, then plenty of availability next week!  I think it’ll really be going off by sunday or monday as we will be on a warming trend then, some of the winter holes where fish stack up should start going off!

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

Got out with Vince and Steven who fished with me a few days ago, as well as Vinces son Lucas.  The forecast didn’t look great but got a little better by last night so we planned to go and head out early.  It was cold but not incredibly cold, and windy but not incredibly windy, so the ride wasn’t terrible I’ve definitely seen worse!  It was however overcast almost all day and their was a slight humidity in the air so that made it feel much colder and never really got to warm up throughout the day.  But only a slight drizzle for about 10 minutes not much at all really.  Fishing started out slow but when the tide slowed down and got near the change, we got in a spot where the bite really fired up.  We caught a bunch of black drum, about 8 snook, and 1 redfish.  Funny because we were picking away and caught 4 fish in about an hour, then all of a sudden we had one on every few minutes.  But after an hour or so it died down again.  We moved on and didn’t find much throughout the rest of the day.  I tried another good half dozen spots at least, and I think we only caught a couple fish on 2 of them.  I’m off now for a few days I got cancelled tomorrow but may end up taking my dad for fun as the conditions look good.  It’s gonna be in the 50s so hopefully that might mean the big drum and snook fire off.  But then it’ll be very cold with lows in the high 40s through the weekend.  At some point that will definitely fire up the backcountry bite, but it could get too cold for some of that time.  But if the fish adjust it could be very good during that time, or may be good later in the afternoons or whenever the water warms up slightly after the sharp drop.  But at some point you can guarantee it’ll ‘get good’ lol.  Anyways if you are wanting to get out fishing, give me a shout I have several open days this month and January is great for our winter time fishing.

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