Backcountry Fishing Reports

Got out for a fun fishing trip with my pal Capt. Bill Bassett.  We wanted to explore some areas we hadn’t been in a while, and fish a few things neither of us had been too before.  It’s funny that living down here there are still areas that we haven’t fished with decades of fishing experience between us, but the Keys and Everglades are that vast and you get dialed in to your routine areas so it happens.  Anyways pilchards were nice and easy we found a load on the ocean side.  We stopped to try a secret snook spot out on the Atlantic side, and we did find a few and boated one nice one and lost another!  That was cool to see and those spots come in handy once in a while when we are fishing close to home.  We jetted back into the bay towards the flamingo area of the everglades.  We fished some islands that we hadn’t been to in a while.  Ones that are tough to get in that I usually don’t take my boat in as it can get very skinny on the wrong tides.  Though today I think I could’ve made it and I may try when we have higher water.  Anyways we worked around and found a good load of nice snook there as well as one redfish.  It was fun catching them in an area I don’t fish often as I said.  After that we tried another island that neither of us had fished in a while.  Years ago it was very good though in recent times it hasn’t produced much.  Unfortunately it didn’t produce much today but maybe one day it’ll get good again.  After that we hit another island neither of us had ever been too.  It looked pretty with nice flowing water.  We found loads of baby barracudas and mangrove snappers, as well as some lemon sharks swimming around.  It looked very lively, but no snook or reds which were were hoping for.  After that we called it a morning and headed home.  We found another load of pilchards in the bay on the way home and decided to fill the well so we could put bait in our pens.  With the impending cold front tomorrow night, we may not need them for a while as when the water temperatures get into the 60s and below, most fish are eating shrimp better than anything especially in the backcountry.  But it’ll be nice to have them when things warm back up.  Looks to stay cold for at least 4 days though, and the water may take a few days after that to get back to the 70 degree range.  But I think we are in store for a great week of fishing once things stabilize.  I’ll be out Monday and Tuesday so will hopefully have good reports.  I am available Sunday if anyone wants to go as of now, though had a party possibly interested.

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

Fun little half day with Robert and Bradley. They were visiting Florida from up in the NY area and drove down from Hollywood to meet me this AM. I had bait penned up from a few days ago, nice live pilchards, and plenty of shrimp. We headed back towards Flamingo where I’ve been having some luck with snook as of late. Took a little bit to get them going somewhat but after working at it we began picking away at them. I think we landed 7 or so and lost another 3 or 4, pretty good fishing! Snook are all catch and release now, which I prefer to do most of the time anyways. After that we hit some snapper holes and got our limit quickly again. Not quite as large of snappers as the other day but still very respectable. We made our way home after that and cleaned fish for the boys for lunch. Looks like we have a real cold front coming in Saturday which overall should be good for much of our Backcountry fishing. However it may make that day particular not very fishable as the winds are gonna crank and looks like good chances of rain too. Looks to stay in the high 50s for several days, so it’ll be legit cold for here. Might be time for the drums and reds to fire up… be ready when it gets nice. I have Sunday open if anyone wants to give that a whirl it could be very good.

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

Got out with Tim and his daughter Bridgette today for a full day of december backcountry fishing in islamorada.  We had pilchards stashed away from yesterday plus some nice jumbo live shrimp that were delivered in the AM.  We headed out and tried some of the areas where I’d had luck for snooks, reds, and snappers a few days ago.  Tides were a little different today, same direction but the level was much higher.  We didn’t do much the first stop where I had done well the other day, and then struck out in another spot after that.  I was a little worried and was about to bail, but then I hit one more area that looked promising.  We got zinged by a large mangrove snapper right away on our pilchard, so I anchored the boat and we got to fishin’.  Soon we were catching several nice size snappers, and a few snook showed up too.  We had very good fishing for a little window, then it slowed down.  I continued working the edge, pitching baits near the mangroves, and we stayed in the fish for a couple hours.  We easily got our limit of mangrove snappers, up to 17 inches nice big ones.  I think we also caught about 8 snook and lost another half dozen I’d say.  Phenomenal fishing!  After we ran out of the live pilchards we headed out to the gulf in search of spanish mackerel.  It was hot and calm, but I found an area where the water looked good.  We anchored up on some potholes, and started to chum with our frozen chum block and a little bit of shrimp.  Soon we had fish behind the boat, we casted jigs tipped with shrimp and caught blue runners, spanish mackerel, lane snappers, and big ladyfish.  All you could want for the next hour!  Many of the mackerel are nicer size right now too, still being the early arrivals.  We finished there a little later, and kept some ladyfish and mackerels for bait for some larger quarry.  We tried some areas for sharks and possibly tarpon since it was warm enough, but didn’t see much for tarpon.  We never really had a shark bite either, I was surprised as the water was in the high 70s, plenty warm for them.  But oh well that’s how it goes, and we still had a banner day regardless.  On the way home we saw a bald eagle which was cool and had some manatees waiting for us at the dock!

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

Got out with Blayze and his family for his birthday trip down to Islamorada.  They fished yesterday with my brother and got a big swordfish so they were stoked.  Today we had a half day scheduled fishing in the islamorada backcountry.  He said he would like to try and catch reds as he saw we had a good day last week, though I told him it could be hit or miss on a half day as you have limited time especially when we have to run an hour to those areas.  But I figured we’d have a shot at catching other stuff if they weren’t cooperating.  We had plenty of shrimp and I had some bait penned up that I caught yesterday, and I still have some in the pens for any upcoming trips in the next few days if anybody wants to go!  We ran back towards the flamingo area and tried some snook spots.  Not much there though we did find one good branch that had a few fish, I think we caught 4 and blayze also got a his first saltwater catfish though we don’t like to brag about those!  After that I decided to try some other areas on the way home.  We lucked out and found a good school of redfish in one!  I hadn’t caught reds in there myself ever, though I know a long long time ago they use to get in there sometimes.  I think the storm may have cleaned some old time areas out that have been grown over and had the bottom filled with dead grass – now some of those have cleaned up and have more hard bottom that these fish like!  Anyways we only spent about 40 minutes there but I think we caught close to a dozen reds, one nice 8 lb snook, and 8 keeper mangrove snappers for dinner!  3 of the snappers were jumbos too 2-3 lbers.  Just an awesome way to end our trip and I found out something new which I always like!  I’ve got plenty of open days this week and am offering discounted trips until 12/23/17 due to hurricane IRMA.  So if you are around give me a shout let’s go fishing!

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

Got out for a fun trip with my dad Richard Sr, Stephen Byrd, and friend Capt. Dave Peck.  We decided to try some stuff that I hadn’t fished in a while and explore a little.  We caught some pilchards early on and had good live shrimp so we were baited up.  Catching pilchards in November for fishing is a time honored tradition for getting on those ‘hot bite’ days.  We banged away at some nice flamingo redfish in the first place we stopped landing quite a few.  I got a nice big one as we moved a little further down working the edges of the structure we were fishing.  Casting accurately is key in these situations and I had a boat full of excellent anglers so we made it look easy.  We tried some other points and all the ones that had pretty looking water were holding plenty of fish.  Got into some snook on the next one which was fun to mix it up.  We then tried another area nearby that I hadn’t fished in years.  Nothing in the first place but we moved down again and same thing once we found nice looking water with a little current moving it was game on.  Some more redfish and then the snook started chomping!  We lost a big one and caught a couple nice ones too.  We then tried another spot and I got one nice snook there.  The tide was now starting to fall and so things were starting to get shallow in the areas we had been fishing.  I noticed some bait flipping and we made a throw with the cast net, and got a bunch of baby threadfin herring!  These are great baits but they normally don’t keep very good when you net them, but these ones maybe because they were small didn’t do bad.  They were even still alive when we got home.  Anyways the next few stops we didn’t catch much, but we tried one other area before calling it a day.  The snook were stacked up here, lots of little guys though we did catch a few decent ones on our new threadfins.  We tried one other piece of structure in the area and we were about to call it quits when Dave hooked a monster snook, the biggest of the day!  Unfortunately after one good jump he threw the hook and we were a little depressed.  But I caught another smaller snook and then also landed a respectable 6 lber.  I think the one he lost may of been a 10 lber though it was a very nice looking fish!  Anyways that was all she wrote and we headed home victors of the day.  I think we all landed fish in the double digits with close to 50 snook and reds.  Just an awesome day one of the best if not the best I’ve had since Hurricane Irma.  I don’t have anything on the books for a little bit here, so if anybody wants to go especially later this week, we look to have similar conditions.  The weekdays are best as there are no crowds back there and that leaves many more options open as far as places to fish!  Give me a shout!

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