Backcountry Fishing Reports

Got out today after the cold front came in yesterday.  The temperatures dropped dramatically and it was in the low 60s this morning, brrr!  I don’t remember the last time it got this cold in October it’s been a long time.  We prepared for some ‘winter time’ fishing and got some shrimp and caught a handful of pilchards.  The everglades creeks were our destination.  We tried a few areas first where I had good fishing a few days ago.  However today there wasn’t much there.  We tried 3 spots in the area, and all we got was a few catfish!  Conditions looked reasonably good in one of the spots too.  After that we bailed and headed back towards another spot we passed by.  Here we found some fish!  It wasn’t a red hot bite, but we got a few snook to start with, one about every 5 minutes.  Then we got a few reds, including a double header red and black drum.  We proceeded to ‘pick away’ at the fish for another hour or so.  I think all in all we probably caught about 15 fish here.  Things dried up and we tried some other smaller creek areas which are normally good in the winter.  However it was tough fishing in there, we caught one more little snook and a sheepshead in one spot, and then nothing else anywhere.  We probably hit about 7 or 8 different spots in there too… just power fishing for 5-10 minutes a spot and moving.  Hopefully things get a little easier soon.  Seems that’s been par for the course – you can get lucky and find one good spot a day, but if somebody beats you there you might have a tough day!  Anyways glad we made it happen.  Back at it tomorrow.

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

Got out with Steve and Mario for some fishing this morning.  We just did an easy little half day trip.  The boys wanted some fish for dinner and then whatever else was a bonus.  We had a cold front coming in, and the forecast was calling for rain.  Luckily though the rain wasn’t too bad we got a little drizzle early on the ride out, and that was it.  Bait was difficult with the 20 knot wind, we did see a little bit but I wasn’t able to capitalize as I didnt’ have my net loaded at the time.  It was so muddy that we weren’t able to see them after that.  Luckily I had some leftover cut bait from several days ago so we just went and used that.  Snappers weren’t very easy though we managed to pick away at them and got enough for them for a good meal.  Though we had plenty of action with other things!  Mario landed a couple juvenile tarpon, and jumped off a couple more!  I even got one myself as the guys didn’t mind if I fished with them, and since the snappers were tough I’d figured I’d give them a hand.  We also got a nice small snook, a lemon shark, a nurse shark, and got cut off by a few other bigger sharks.  I think we also even had a small goliath grouper get us caught up in the trees.  The islands were just alive with fish it was cool to see.  Not sure if they’ll stick around with the temperature dropping, but it’s not getting terribly cold so they might stick around.  Hopefully they do this would be a nice thing to have for the few weeks coming up!

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

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