Backcountry Fishing Reports

Got out with Eric, Eric, and Vinny today.  We had slick calm weather most of the day, then it picked up a light breeze out of the west.  In the morning we tried the mackerels, they weren’t easy but we kept at it and ended up with 15 or so after about an hour and a half.  When it’s clear, calm, and not hard current, it can be tough fishing.  But we wanted them for shark/tarpon bait so we made it happen.  We found a lot of tarpon where they were yesterday, but we kind of caught the tide change so had very little current there.  Fish were rolling and busting everywhere too but didn’t so much interest in us.  By the time the tide turned and got going out, they had mostly moved on.  Though 3 other boats were in the area and I don’t think any of them had any action out of them at all… guess it was just too pretty for them!  The boys didn’t want to spend the rest of the day doing that, after an hour or so we had caught probably a half dozen sharks (blacktips).  We decided to look for tripletails and it was surprisingly good!  There hadn’t been many out there, but with the light west breeze kicking we saw quite a few probably close to 20 or so.  We caught 3 keepers including a large 12.5 lber!  The biggest I’ve caught since last year when we got one that was 13.8 right around this time too.  We caught another half dozen small guys and that was the end of the day.  Not too shabby!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got out with Eric and Brandon today and we mixed it up a bit.  Flat calm with light southeasterly breeze later in the day.  We caught the last trickle of incoming tide out on the mackerel grounds, and was a little worried since it was so calm that it’d be tough to get them going.  But it ended up being pretty good we probably caught a couple dozen mackerels in about an hour or so.  After that the boys had mentioned wanted to try for tarpon and I said there had been a few around when conditions had been right, and it looked like today it may of warmed up just enough to get some action out of them if they were around, so we tried that.  We ended up coming across a herd of them in one of the channels, and 2nd bait in the water we hooked a big 150 lber!  He fought hard and jumped a lot and we landed him, plus tons of blacktip sharks and eventually got a sawfish too.  No more tarpon bites but it’s a good day to get 1 especially this time of year.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got out with John, Jim, and Joe the last couple of days.  Yesterday winds were honking out of the west north west as a cold front came upon us.  The temperatures didn’t drop until last night, but it was a steady 18-20 mph breeze through the day.  The near gulf bay was too rough to get in, so we tried some areas in the backcountry that border on the gulf.  It was a bit muddy out there and didn’t catch much besides a couple ladyfish and a bluefish.  So we hit some islands for some mangrove snappers.  We were able to pick enough for dinner.  After that we caught a big sawfish which was cool, had another one on too that we broke off.  We then hit the backcountry canals and tried for some snook.  It wasn’t red hot but we did catch a couple, and lost a 3rd one that may of possibly been a juvenile goliath grouper, couldn’t tell as he got us in the sticks pretty quickly.  After that it was was time to come home.

Today it was much nicer it was a little breezy out of the north in the AM and chilly down in the low 60s.  It warmed up pretty quickly though and by mid day the winds were almost nothing.  We hammered the spanish mackerel in the morning along with a few snappers and jacks.  We then hit a few patch reefs on the atlantic ocean side.  Mangrove snappers were in the first one and we got a few of them for dinner again.  Next stop had plenty of lane snappers and a couple porgies.  Water every where was very green.  Didn’t find any hogfish which I was hoping for, but the blacktip sharks were swarming out there which was interesting.  They were eating about every other fish we hooked, or at least trying too!  We put a big rod out and caught one for fun.  After that we tried another patch reef in a different area without much luck, then tried drifting shrimp around the bridges.  We had a couple good bites and lost a big fish – not sure what – in some structure around the bridge.  After that the boys wanted to go in to catch a flight.  We cleaned some fish and that was it.  All in all we had some fun and decent fishing given the not so great conditions yesterday especially.

Looks like the temps will stay cool tonight in the low 60s, but not suppose to blow hard and should warm back up in a few days.  Hopefully those tarpon will be getting more active again I’m sure once the water temps get back in the high 70s they will be!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Jim and Gwen were with me again today, it was a little breezy out of the southwest with an impending cold front coming tomorrow night.  We had some leftover bait from yesterday and Gwen didn’t want too bumpy of a ride so we stayed in the backcountry bays and channels.  We caught some sharks, a big ‘mud marlin’ sawfish, and one tarpon!  We also lost another tarpon unfortunately.   With the wind and conditions it was fairly good fishing to be honest so we were happy.  We decided to hit the mangrove islands for some snapper on the way home.  That was a little tougher we had to work around but eventually we found some nice snappers in one of the cuts leading into the island – the island itself seemed to be filled with undersized ones.  Anyhow, back at it tomorrow.  Gonna get cold so tarpon may slow down for a few days here until water temps get back up near 80.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Got out with Jim and Gwen, two of my favorite long time customers.  We hit the mackerel grounds early and caught a ton of spanish macks it was hot and heavy action.  Also a few bluefish and blue runners in the mix.  After that Jim wanted to try for a goliath grouper so we ran out further to one of the wrecks that hold them.  Unfortunately there were so many big bull sharks at the wreck it was tough to get through them.  We got one big 300 lb bull shark up to the boat, and proceeded to hook 4 more that we chased around and eventually just popped most of them off trying to get back to the grouper.  Jim wasn’t feeling well though and eventually he had enough and we decided to head in a little early.  On the way home I spotted a couple triple tail, and one looked like a keeper so I talked him into just spinning around to catch that – as triple tail was on his species target list too.  We got him for dinner, and headed home happy.  I have tomorrow off to do some service work on my motor, then back at it Wednesday with these two again.  Suppose to blow but it’s warm enough again for tarpon so may give that a shot, we’ll see…

Capt. Rick Stanczyk