Backcountry Fishing Reports

Well the last two days we ended up pretty good despite having 25 mph winds!  It started cranking out of the east and made our conditions a little tough.  Yesterday I had a last minute trip with a couple who fished with my brother the day before.  It got a little too rough for them so we gave the backcountry a try.  We didn’t catch a bunch of fish but we got some quality ones, including a first tarpon, first snook, a big jack crevelle, and some big lemon sharks.  Not too shabby.  Today I had some young fellas visiting from Miami who were students there.  They wanted to try for tarpon.  We ran back to the canals of the everglades mainland as it was protected there and there had been a lot of small tarpon in there the last few weeks I’d been getting shots at.  The tarpon weren’t in the first place we stopped but we did get on a good snook bite, landing double digits I’d say and missing just as many.  We then tried for straight tarpon the last hour, we did find some even though they weren’t showing very much on this day.  We jumped one he didn’t stay on the hook for us, and caught a small cubera snapper.  That was about all she wrote but not a bad two days of fishing for the conditions.  Fall is here and it should get better for certain things as the weather cools down.  Tarpon will likely slow down, but snook, redfish, mackerel, and others should start to fire up!  Give me a shout to get out there.

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

Got out for a ‘fun trip’ with my dad and our friend, Ron Modra.  We caught some pilchards early and headed back to the cape sable area of the everglades, a good 40 mile run where we headed.  A few boats were already back there, and unfortunately one was in a spot that I wanted to fish!  We made due though and fished another area close by.  We didn’t get much to start, but we saw plenty of little tarpon rolling and tried messing with them.  Ron and I hooked and landed a double header soon after which was cool!  Unfortunatley they both came off by the boat, we then jumped another one in the rod holder, and then later on Ron got one that we netted and got a few pictures of.  We usually do not boat tarpon but little guys under 40 inches it is allowed.  My dad also got a snook and I landed a nice slot size snook fish of 8 lbs or so.  After that things slowed down and we decided to run even further to check out some other areas.  We saw a ton of baitfish, small finger mullets, all up and down the coast, but surprisingly not much busting them.  We tried a few spots in the creeks up that way, but never had a sniff.  I decided to bail as it just didn’t feel right up there, and I’m glad we did as I talked to another guide later who fished there and they said they never caught anything either.  We headed back towards where we started, the boat was still sitting in the place I wanted to go so I assume they were catching some good fish.  We tried a few spots further back towards the other end of the canal without much luck.  Then I finally hit a spot that I’d had some luck at the last few days before.  We didn’t get anything for about 15 minutes and I was surprised.  We almost called it quits then we hooked a triple header of snook!  All nice size fish!  We proceeded to catch another 4 or so snook, and got a nice redfish and trout too to complete a backcountry SLAM (snook, redfish, tarpon).  Great way to end the day all in all I think we had 10 snook, 1 red, 3 out of 4 tarpon, and a trout.  Not massive numbers but it was nice as most the snook were quality size slot fish, I’d rather catch a handful of them then 30 little guys to be honest… especially when it’s just me fishing.  We then headed home and called it a day.  I’m booked Sunday but am available tomorrow or Monday through Wednesday, then I’m fishing thursday through the weekend again.  Give me a shout the hurricane is long past and things are back to normal, and the fishing is GOOD!

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

Well the last few days on the water were pretty great.  I did not fish Sunday but I did on saturday, monday, and tuesday.  Nice to have a little busy roll while the fishing and weather were good!  Saturday it was still on the windier side but we had a fun day.  I had Bob and his son Bobby out for the day.  Tarpon was the main thing they wanted to try to catch.  Unfortunately it didn’t happen for us that day but we did manage some nice snook in the morning and a redfish.  We did hook up to two smaller tarpon but both came unbuttoned.  Later in the day we tried for more snook and smaller tarpon and things were a little slow for a few stops.  For the last bit of the day we tried for larger tarpon though we didn’t see a lot of activity, but we got a nice blacktip shark to finish the day and a couple more snook at another stop.  Monday the winds laid out flat and it looked ripe for fishing.  We banged the snook in the morning… they were really biting this day.  We also had one little tarpon we lost.  Then for the latter part of the day we tried for larger tarpon offshore.  We found a good group of them and had four bites, the first one we missed, second one broke us off on the motor, then we landed the last two for Colin and Stephen who were visiting from the UK.  We also got a very large 150 lb lemon shark.  Great day for these boys and there buddies were also with another captain and they had a very similar catch with a couple tarpon and some snook as well.  Yesterday I had Jerry and his son in law Marc.  We were originally booked a half day but I talked them into doing a 3/4 day instead so we could run into the backcountry.  We loaded up on pilchards and away we went.  The snook were chewing again I think they each landed a dozen or so!  We also got a couple redfish, the little tarpon were there though unfortunately didn’t want to play.  We tried offshore in the same area for the tarpon it was a little windier today and I didn’t see much for signs of them.  I only had a couple good hook baits and we chummed with our pilchards.  Marc ended up getting a couple very large snook though of 12 and 15 lbs which was very cool, and Jerry got a nice 50 lb lemon shark.  We caught a few more snook and some big jacks and a redfish around another islands on the way home.  Anyways the fishing like I said has been pretty good.  I’m going out for fun with my dad and a friend tomorrow, then I have availability Friday, Saturday, or some days next week!  Give me a shout if you want to get out.

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

Got out with Keith and Rich today for a full day.  We caught some bait early on, some nice ‘beach bait’ small and medium size pilchards and had some shrimp we bought as well.  The bait is started to show up in several areas for the fall which is nice to see.  We hit the backcountry and found plenty of baby tarpon early on.  They jumped off the hook on us though, Keith had a couple bites out of them but they didn’t want to stay on.  We next moved to another canal where we got into a good mess of snook.   We had double headers several times in a row and probably landed a dozen or so then things shut off.  We saw a lot of tarpon rolling nearby so we messed around with them after that.  Rich hooked up and landed a nice 30 lb tarpon!  We also got into some more snook after this.  It wasn’t as red hot of a bite, but we were getting one every 5 minutes or so and Keith got a couple nice good size slot redfish too!  After that things slowed down and we met up with the other boat in our party.  We tried a few different things, including drifting for trout in the bay and chumming for mackerel on the edge of the gulf, neither of which we had much luck with.  Haven’t been out much since the storm so we wanted to try a few different things.  After that we decided to hit a few channels for some mangrove snapper, even that was a little tough but we did find one good spot and caught 4 nice keepers before calling it a day.  All in all it was a great day and we really made our day in the first couple hours of the morning, but we’ll take it!  I’m fishing the next several days so hopefully the bite stays on, I’ll try to post another report after I get done with all that.  But if you want to get out fishing October is a great time and we are starting to get the cooler northeasterly winds which usually can light the fishing up!

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

Got out last sunday with my friend Vic and fellow Capt. Mike Bassett. Bait was swarming we caught some locally around Islamorada. Loaded up with a few hundred pilchards and finger mullet. The bait run is in effect! We had to run a ways up islamorada to get the bait, and with the winds cranking we didn’t get back to the fishing areas to almost 10:00 or so.  The winds were blowing a bit out of the south, not my favorite, but this was Vics day to go so we did. We got back to the cape sable area of flamingo and started fishing. The tide was super high and ripping in and the winds kicked up even more, so the water wasn’t very pretty. Inside the canal there was a deeper, darker brown almost tanic color, though it wasn’t a clean tanic but more muddy. I didn’t see many places that looked worth fishing so we tried the outside edge on the west side of sable that was more in the lee of the wind. We caught a big lemon shark on light tackle and vic got a snook. Not much after that we tried another area inside and saw lots of baby tarpon. They flashed on some free baits we threw, but couldn’t get them to respond to our hook baits. We tried another area without much luck either. We then tried somewhere else on the inside of the cape and caught a handful of snook and a sheepshead there. Vic was showing us how to do it he got all the snook! After that we were a little burnt out and I was having some fuel issues with my boat so we headed home. But a fun day and it was good to get out on the water post-hurricane irma. This week the winds are really cranking as another tropical storm is forming in the gulf and we are getting plenty of rain which we need to help clean up and restore our trees in the area after the hurricane. But I think the fishing later in October will be very good and once the winds lay down some it should be game on, hopefully by later this weekend that will be the case. My next day booked is Sunday and tarpon is on the agenda, we will likely be trying some other tactics. But if you are wanting to go fishing give me a shout, the upper keys are definitely back open and ready for business!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903