Backcountry Fishing Reports

Got out with Andy and his stepson Trey again for day 2 of fishing in the florida keys in november.  The winds were howling out of the east 25 mph, but the nice thing about the charter fishing in the keys is we have a lot of protected water in the florida bay.  We can skirt along the edges of the shallow bay flats to keep the waves down and keep everyone fairly dry for the ride.  We did some everglades mangrove island fishing and caught some mangrove snappers.  Not anything huge but we got a half dozen keeper size ones which we kept for the boys for lunch.  Just about every restaurant in town will do a florida keys hook and cook with snapper, and we don’t mind to fillet them for you at the dock.  We also got a nice jack crevelle, and Trey got a sheepshead which was another species on his list of fish.  I think they both ended up catching at least a half dozen species of fish in their 2 days they’d never caught before!  After that we headed back towards channel 2 bridge in islamorada for fishing in the bay.  We hit a little wreck and anchored which was a little tough as it was so windy but finally got the boat to hang.  Once we got to fishing it wasn’t too bad, we caught some more jack crevelles, a couple big ladyfish, and a couple mackerel though both the spanish mackerel cut us off at the boat before we could get any pictures.  After an hour or so of that the guys were wore out and hungry so we headed in a little early on our 3/4 day to clean fish and send them to the restaurant for lunch!  They had a great time doing something different on their second day of fishing here, and Andy said he’d be back next June for some summer time tarpon fishing in the everglades.  I’m not booked tomorrow but have a full day trip Monday, think we are going after snook and the winds are suppse to lay back down tomorrow so hopefully it’ll be good!  I’ll probably try to catch some live pilchards for bait fish tomorrow so I’ll be locked and loaded for Monday.

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

Got out with Andy and his stepson Trey for a 3 quarter day today. Haven’t fished the last few days as I’ve been home alone with my son having fun. They wanted to catch some snook so we gave that a try. Looked for pilchards in a few spots heading out but didn’t see much in the bay, though a buddy of mine found some out on the ocean side and gave us a few scoops. We ended up catching everything on shrimp though anyhow! The boys each got several snook including a couple nice ones, Trey getting the largest. Andy got a 20 lb tarpon on light tackle later on too which was awesome, but unfortunately he didn’t cooperate for pictures. Trey got a black drum and a big jack crevelle too. The water was the best looking I’ve seen it around the cape areas where we often fish which is a good thing, hopefully with some more cold weather fish will pile in there! Back at it tomorrow with these guys not sure what we are gonna do, but it is suppose to blow a little bit!

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

Well had some free time this weekend so tried something I’d been meaning to for a while. Went with my friend Vic and hit some of his bass holes in homestead! Kind of a last minute deal but met him and a few others up there. We fished a few canals and one pond mostly throwing topwaters though tried some worms too. Not a lot of action but Vic got a couple peacocks at the first stop. I had one bite but missed it and a few other followers. The next stop I got a little largemouth bass and so did Vic. After that we tried the other end of this area and found a mix of fish. I got a larger largemouth here, then a cichlid, and finally my peacock! Not a big one but the right one. After that we tried a pond near the overpass where we saw the most fish we had seen. We switched over to weighted worms but never had any bites. The bass were interested but just not wanting to feed it seemed. After that I called it a day and headed home. Fun stuff and was a cool experience, plus got to catch my first homestead peacock bass and cichlid. Think I will try it again some time for sure.

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

Got out with Bruce, Dan, and Alan today, return customers who come down from Miami to visit the Keys. The weather was gorgeous with light northeasterly winds. They originally wanted to do a half day, but wanted to target snook. Most of the areas where we snook fish in the everglades are an hour run, so unless you get lucky and hit ’em good in your first or second stop, it can be tough to do with only a couple hours of fishing time. Plus with the way fishing has been lately with all the nasty water around and temperature fluctuations, where the bite is has been changing day by day so more time lets you work more areas, fish different tides, etc… Today also was almost one of those days where we jokingly say it’s too pretty to do that kind of fishing… as when it gets calm and warm in the ‘snook areas’ especially in the winter, it can often be very buggy and tougher fishing. Often times your ‘open water’ areas can be more productive on days like this. Anyways we did manage to get in on a decent bite first thing on the last of the falling tide and the bugs weren’t too bad, not red hot but I think we managed to catch 7 or 8 snook and probably missed another half dozen. This was an area that few days ago there wasn’t much of anything as the tide was incoming those days and bringing lots of muddy ugly water in. Once the tide turned we backtracked and fished some areas where I’d had luck the last few days. Unfortunately today there wasn’t much going on there, I was actually a bit surprised. We worked a couple areas with the trolling motor without a sniff aside from a few catfish, then tried anchoring in another spot that had been real good when the water was colder, but nothing at all there today aside from a few catfish. No drum or redfish today either – they definitely prefer the cooler water temperatures and it has risen up from a few days ago. After that we tried one other creek that I had caught a few redfish in yesterday. We did manage to get another snook there, and then had another good bite I thought was a snook but ended up being a very large hardhead catfish! Anyways I was glad we were able to catch a few fish and enjoy a beautiful day in everglades national park.

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

Another great day on the H20 with Ron and his son Mark. They swordfished yesterday with my brother Nick Stanczyk and got one to the boat. Today we mixed it up a bit in the backcountry. Hit the Everglades to start and boy was it buggy! With the lighter winds and warming trend the noseums were thick. We didn’t get a whole lot at our first stop except bug bites so we tried another area. This was a little more open and the bugs relented. We got into a decent snook bite and landed quite a few fish. We then moved around a bit and Ron got a nice slot size snook! Mark got a couple more smaller ones too. After that we tried elsewhere and Mark got a couple of redfish which was cool. We then ran and tried the gulf… Lots of nasty brown water out there. Looked for tripletails but no luck with that. We finally found some cleaner water near a mackerel hole I like. We chummed for a while without much luck but then a few fish started biting. We got a few mackerels including one nice large one, a couple big ladyfish, a bluefish, and a good handful of jacks and blue runners. We didn’t have the best tide, usually prefer it falling, but you have to work with what you got! All in all a good mixed bag day… the boys were very happy with two good fishing trips in the keys. Hopefully the mackerels will show up a bit better later this month. I think with a little more cold and cleaner water they will.

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