Backcountry Fishing Reports

Got out into the islamorada backcountry fishing yesterday with Adam, Ken, and Dan.  They were down from South Florida for a little fishing.  Weather was nice it was a little breezy during the morning but laid out nice in the afternoon.  Water was in the high 60s in the morning and maybe 70 by later in the day.  We fished in the everglades creeks and canals in  the morning.  Water was high with the last of the incoming tide.  We caught a nice triple header red and black drum right off the bat, and a few more singles.  But after that tons of ladyfish and jacks swarmed us.  We picked away at the drums the next couple hours, also got some nice snappers, a few big trout, and even a couple pompano.  A good november florida keys fishing bite.  It was good various action!  Probably ended up with a bakers dozen on red and black drum.  Fished a few more spots back there without much luck, did lose what we thought was a nice snook.  The tide was now falling hard.  After that we headed to the gulf and we picked a nice cobia off of a wreck straight away, about a 15 lber.  We then found a nice tripletail that we hooked but unfortunately pulled the hook on him boatside.  We hit a few other areas of structure without much luck aside from jacks and small snappers, and looked for more tripletail but didn’t see much.  But we finished up on another wreck and caught about a dozen spanish mackerel to finish the day.  All in all a great day of everglades charter fishing.

Since we are more in ‘winter time mode’ the next few months, I’ll be posting more daily reports here and not so much on my tarpon blog (islamoradatarpon.com).

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

November is rolling by and it is finally feeling like winter here.  Temperatures have been in the 70s during the day and we’ve had a few mild fronts (we are having one right now) where it’s been getting in the 60s at night.  This brings the most significant changes to our fishery as things cool off.  Spanish mackerel have been in the gulf and I’ve been doing a good bit of fishing for them.  The action is hot and heavy with a lot of larger size fish back there.  We’ve also gotten a few cobia and permit on some wrecks out there, plus the occasional triple tail off the crab pot buoys.  In the backcountry, snook, redfish, and black drum fishing is getting better and better.  This fishing can get very good when we have the hard cold fronts of winter.  Sometimes those fish get stacked up after a good cool off, and you can sit and catch ’em one after another for a good period of time.  While it’s not an every day occurrence, you can bet we will have the conditions over the next few months once in a while.  Out on the ocean side the patch reefs are just alive with fish.  Porgy, snapper, grouper, and hogfish are the usual suspects in those areas.  Hogfish are one of my favorite eating fish and if you taste one, you’ll soon agree!  Anyways it’s a great time to come fishing in the keys, if you are down here drop me a line and let’s get out on the water!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

October is rolling by and we’ve been experiencing the ‘fall bait run.’  During this time we start to get some of the first consistent northerly breezes and lots of baitfish migrate back down the coasts of Florida.  While the bait varies a good part of it is mullet of all sizes, many black mullet though silvers as well.  The tarpon usually go absolutely nuts along with plenty of other predator species, and many of the large tarpon that were around in the spring are making their way back south as well as it is starting to cool off north of here.  This can make for some spectacular fishing and to be honest this year September and October Islamorada Fishing has been the best tarpon fishing we have had all year.  The last couple weeks though it has really been game on, with the bait run and tons of tarpon all over the shoreline of South Florida in the everglades national park.  It’s quite a sight to witness tarpon from 20 lbs to 200 lbs crashing mullet multiple times a minute, sometimes as far as you can see.  Anyways I’ve fished every day the last week and we have had multiple tarpon bites every day that we have tried.  We have landed at least one fish every day as well, usually 2 or more – that is some good fishing for this time of year!  I don’t know how much longer it will go on as we are getting a cold front this weekend, though it is not suppose to get very cold so it might spark right back up again next week.  Anyways once it does cool off, the snook and redfish fishing should get much better.  It’s been fair though not as good as usual for the Fall, but I think it is still coming.  Out in the gulf the spanish mackerel will be an everyday thing soon as well.  November is a nice time to be here as it is much more comfortable outside, and with the cooling off we start to get a taste of more of our winter time fishing.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

The September Islamorada Fishing has been very good this year!  It is typically a slower time of year for business for us – really just about the slowest month of the year there is.  This year has been no different however it has been a little busier than normal which is a nice change.  I haven’t been out every day and have also been on vacation but the days I’ve fished it’s been very good!  We had a phenomenal week of tarpon fishing where tarpon showed up in just about all of the backcountry channels.  We had a couple days where we landed 4 tarpon and some others where we landed a few more.  One of the best windows of fishing I’ve had all year as it has been an overall tougher year for tarpon!  Just yesterday I got out fun fishing with my dad and friend Steven.  We ran deep into the everglades backcountry fishing for snook and redfish.  We didn’t find them in a lot of places, but one spot was loaded nicely and we came away with about 10 nice reds and 10 snook total for the day.  Another half day trip we fished we got into loads of nice size trout and a mixed bag of snappers, ladyfish, and jacks.  It was action just about every cast.  As I said early September we were out of town and I am fixing to go out of town now again for the end of the month, and having a little boat maintenance done while away.  So if you are looking to do some florida keys fishing in September I can steer you in the right direction, otherwise I’ll be back in October.  Now October is one of my favorite months of the year to fish here.  It’s still fairly slow with business so you have the backcountry to yourself often, and with the slight cooling off of the weather and water, fishing gets very good.  We also start to get the fall bait run where loads of bait fish come down the cost and tons of tarpon, snook, redfish, jacks, and other predators are hot on their tails.  This obviously can make for some pretty epic fishing conditions.  Give me a shout if you want to get hooked up!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Fishing Islamorada in August has been a good choice the last several years.  Tarpon are usually still around and there isn’t near as much pressure on them as during high season.  Usually winds are light and conditions are good to catch the silver king.  We usually depart on our everglades tarpon fishing charters early in the dark to get back there by daybreak.  This makes catching bait much easier and usually gives you a much better hour of fishing versus leaving at a later time.  You can often sneak in on hungry packs of tarpon that will eat anything that hits the water for that first hour or so of morning time!  This year so far the numbers of fish aren’t quite what they were the last few years going into this time of year.  Fishing has been OK for tarpon this summer – we’ve been catching them most days, though often having to work hard just for a handful of shots.  The last week or so we’ve caught them every trip except one, and most days have been landing a couple.  We haven’t had the ‘ace in the hole’ where you can go to a certain spot and practically guarantee a bite which is what was often the case last year.  The fish have been moving around a lot and not staying put, so sometimes you don’t get a bite until your second or third move.  Though they have been around so usually it does come!  Other than tarpon the snook fishing in the summer is usually pretty good too.  I haven’t done much of it as of late, though when the winds die out they are usually getting very happy as the water cleans up and bait makes its way up and down the mainland shorelines and into the creeks.  We often get some larger snook off the beaches and the occasional goliath grouper or cobia.  On a recent trip we landed this huge 350 lb goliath grouper which was a treat! Sharks are always in the mix too – black tips, lemons, bulls, hammerheads – which is nice to keep the action going.  I think we will get another good push of tarpon before we get into the fall, which by the way can also be a great time to fish when the fall bait run starts to occur!  Give me a shout if you are wanting to get out there.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk