Backcountry Fishing Reports

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

August is rolling by quick and we are still absolutely killing it with the tarpon.  The summer time fishing has been nothing short of epic this year.  We’ve been averaging almost 3 fish a trip, and have only had a handful of days we’ve ‘struck out’ since the beginning of June.  Much better fishing than last summer that is for sure.  So far this August we’ve landed 24 tarpon in 9 trips, and only had one day where we didn’t get one (we had a bite, just missed him).  I have a few days open coming up real soon, then going out of town Saturday for 5 days or so, then I have plenty of availability towards the end of the month starting on the 23rd.  The tarpon fishing can still be good through October, and it’s a slower time of year down here so you have the place to yourself.  We’ve also bagged several nice size triple tails while tarpon fishing too… seeing them float by in dirty water and casting to them is fun and requires some skill to get it done.  Big sharks have also been keeping us busy in between the tarpon action.  Today we landed 4 tarpon, a couple were big ones in the 65 and 90 lb range, followed by some little guys in the 15-20 lb range.  Had several more eats too but they just didn’t stay on the hook sometimes those little guys are tough to keep on there.  It was an absolute blast and just a gorgeous day out there.  If you are interested in fishing down here the next few months let me know, business is slowing down and as I said fishing can still be very good.  I’ll likely have availability short notice and in September can usually even give you a little break on a multi-day trip plus usually get a good deal on a room staying at Bud n’ Mary’s.

P.S. Follow my daily updated Islamorada Tarpon Fishing Blog here.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

July is almost over it’s hard to believe but here we are!  Fishing has been pretty great we’ve had a very good summer fishing in islamorada which is nice.  Most people don’t realize that some of the best fishing the Keys has to offer is July through October.  The crowds are generally gone, you have the summer weather so conditions are usually good (warm, calm), and plenty of fish are still around.  The heat is the only negative but I usually like to leave early on my trips and you can often get your good day worth of fishing done in the first few hours and come in a little early if you desire.  Tarpon are still the big draw for me here through the summer.  August is often a great time for them still, and as I’ve been telling people last year our best tarpon fishing of the year was in September and October as far as consistency and numbers went!  Both June and July we had very good tarpon fishing.  We were averaging a little over 2 fish per trip, which is pretty good.  Normally you are happy to average 1.5-1.75 fish a trip, and anything over 2 or more you are doing well.  Many trips we’ve landed 3 or more fish, as you get the hungry ‘summer time’ pack fish, where you can often have multiple hookups in a short amount of time.  The fish are generally smaller in size (30 – 60 lb), so you can catch ’em quickly and hook more before the bite dies down.  Also the fish can be caught all throughout the day especially in the everglades, some days you just have to put the time in to look for them.  Aside from tarpon there has been a good bite of trout and mangrove snapper in the bay.  Snook fishing hasn’t been quite as good as it was the last couple summers, but it’s been very buggy back there due to lots of rain we’ve had, and we haven’t quite had the summer time bait run that we did the last few years.  But still we’ve been catching some when we’ve tried.  If you are wanting to get down here and catch tarpon or anything else, don’t hesitate to drop me a line.  It’s easy to get something book short notice for the most part.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

June has rolled by quickly and summer time tarpon fishing is in full swing.  That is still my focus this time of year and really all through the summer into September and even October.  This last month the fishing hasn’t been quite as consistent as it was in years past… really that’s been the case the last two years.  While this June was much better than last June by the catch numbers, it’s often been very ‘hit or miss.’  Meaning we’ve had days where we’ve done very well and caught multiple fish in a spot, then gone their the next day and not found a thing.   Most days we end up fishing hard and hitting multiple spots and usually end up finding a tarpon or two, but a handful of days we’ve been skunked though we’ve caught plenty of sharks while doing so to keep us busy.  Anyways fishing gets much more tough when things aren’t consistently reliable – instead of going to 1 spot to hook 3 or 4 tarpon, we are going to 3 or 4 spots to hook 1 tarpon.  This last week for instance we’ve had 3 separate days where we’ve landed 3 or more tarpon when we’ve gotten into the right spot, and in between those days we’ve had one day where we caught none, and a couple days where we only caught 1 each day.  The fish just seem to be moving around a lot though I’m hoping as we get into July the bite will get more consistent and fish will stay put in the channels for periods of time, rather than moving in and out by the day.  I haven’t been doing much else other than tarpon/shark fishing, though we did have a good day with snook about a week or so ago.  We landed 30 or so snook, 3 redfish, and on that day caught 4 tarpon… it was the last nice calm day we had – as it’s been blowing 15-20 or more all week since then, even getting up to 30 one day.  Unfortunately that’s had the bay all churned up the last week, so another reason why I think the tarpon have been a little more hit and miss.  Usually we have calm weather through the summer which means the water gets nice, clean, and pretty and the fish are usually much happier.  Hopefully as we get into July and August that will be the case.  Right now I have about half of July available for trips if anyone is looking to go.  It’s one of my favorite months for tarpon as the crowds die down and the everglades fishery usually turns on!  You often don’t see another boat out there as you battle the silver kings.  We also have good trout and snapper fishing in the bay if you are into that, sometimes you can mix and match fishing options if things cooperate well during the trip.  Anyways drop me a line if you are wanting to get out this summer!

P.S. For daily updated tarpon fishing reports, read my islamorada tarpon fishing blog.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk