Backcountry Fishing Reports

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

Well the New Year came and went without incident for me.  I was in bed fairly early knowing I was going to be fishing today and am starting to feel a little under the weather so want to get plenty of rest when I can!  I had George and his son Chris down today who are regular customers of BNM.  They wanted to fish with me and today was the day so we gave it a go.  We left a little early with shrimp and some chum and planned on a mixed bag day.  It warmed up again slightly from yesterday, so the water is still chilly but not really cold enough to fire off the ‘glades fishing we all love in the winter.  We gave it a try anyways and worked several areas hard for a couple fish.  The water did look a little nicer today then the last two days, so hopefully it’ll clean up even more when the temperatures drop on Wednesday night!  Luckily the couple fish we caught were good fish though. George got a nice snook that didnt’ cooperate for pictures, and also a nice 18 lb black drum!  After that it slowed down and we decided to head for open water.  We found a little batch of triple tails far up the coast, nothing big but fun to catch anyways.  Chris caught them all about a half dozen or so.  We didn’t see anything further down the coast as we made our way that way.  We tried a few pieces of structure on the shoreline and out in the gulf, hoping for a good quality fish.  No luck in either place though, the gulf spot was still very muddy looking.  The shore line place looked reasonably good and I had caught fish there a couple times in the last week.  But just not today.  After that we headed towards the mackerel grounds.  No more triple tails on the way there, I was surprised figured we’d see a few more.  But thankfully the spanish mackerel fishing in the gulf was very good.  We caught probably 16 or so, with a few blue runners and big ladyfish mixed in.  The boys kept a few to blacken this evening.  After that we called it a day.  All in all not a bad day on the water, seems par for the course the last few days having to work hard for a handful of quality fish and then there is something else we can do in the afternoon that’s been quantity vs. quality, if you will.  I have the next couple days then open again on the 4th, which is when the temperature drop will be happening for several days after that.  I’ll likely take a day to rest if I continue to feel under the weather after the next couple days, but that is really the time you want to come for January everglades winter time fishing.  Tides and conditions look favorable starting on the 4th, give me a shout if you are interested.

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

Got out with Adam and his dad Marc today down from Virginia, they had fished with me before.  We had a cold front come in the other day but not a dramatic drop in temperature, rather a much slower cool down.  It got down into the low 60s last night and will stay that way a few nights before then dropping into the low 50s.  Fishing wasn’t very easy out back very muddy and a slight algae looking tinge of yellow to the water.  We worked a few of the ‘cold day’ spots pretty hard.  We did get a few nice fish though, including a 20 lb drum, a smaller drum, and a couple snook.  All firsts for Adam.  We saw quite a few crocodiles which was cool as well and got up close and personal with one that showed no fear.  After the tide got high we left and tried a spot for redfish but didn’t have any luck there.  We then decided to give the gulf a try as the wind had laid out nicely and I figured that’d be more guaranteed action.  It took 20 minutes or so but the mackerels started to bite well plus a few bluefish and some blue runners.  We kept a few mackerels for dinner for the boys to enjoy.  All in all not a bad day the guys were thrilled with what we caught even though I thought it was a little slow – sometimes you get a little spoiled doing this every day!  I hope everyone has a Happy New Year, I’ll be back at it again tomorrow hopefully the bite picks up a little more in the backcountry in 2018!

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