Fishing Reports

Got out for a few hours of fun fishing with my brother in law Jonathan.  They were down visiting for the weekend and we had some time to play.  Just tried to hit a few of my spots hopefully for a big snook, redfish, drum, etc…  Water was gorgeous some of the prettiest I’ve seen in those areas and looked like it was going to be very very good.  Though to be honest it wasn’t – i was surprised!  Tons of jacks, mackerels,  and little sharks in a couple of those areas, hard to get through them.  We did catch some snook and a few redfish in the first stop, nothing super big but a handful.  Spot 2 we did get one nice redfish about 10 to 12 lbs for him so that was cool, then it was very hard to get through the sharks.  Next stop we got a decent snook same thing about a 10-12 lber and some more jacks.  Then we made one more stop and caught a few more redfish.  Then we stopped again in the area where we started as the tide had changed and thought it may pick back up, but we picked a few more snook and redfish.  So it was a decent pick of fish and a lot of action if you were into the jacks, mackerel, etc… but with as clean and nice as  the water looked with the nice lighter north breeze early on, I was hoping we’d of whacked ’em good but just wasn’t the case.  Need a cold front to move some fish around I think.  But all that being said I’m sure we could’ve done well fishing some other areas, and especially if we had more time, but since it wasn’t a pay trip where I felt I had to produce numbers we were just trying to go for the big boys.  I’m pretty busy the rest of this week we’ll see what happens out there.  Looks like this weekend we will finally get a slight cool down just a few degrees, but hopefully it’s a sign of more to come.

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

Fun day filming episode 3 of the Bud n Mary’s YouTube show. We had our friend Capt Jim out today along with my dad. Fishing was pretty good we ran deep in the Backcountry. Decent snook bite with a few reds mixed in. Plenty of Jack’s and ladyfish. Jim had a big 100+on tarpon eat a jig that broke off. We finished the day with some trophies though! Dad got a snook close to 20 lb, and I got a red close to 15 lbs! Jim got a good handful of nice reds to close out as well. Will let you know when the show is out next week!

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

Awesome half day for Sun and John. Lots of snook and Goliath’s, handful of reds, 1 for 2 baby tarpon, and all the 12 to 15 inch mangrove snappers you wanted. Incredible!  The day before we had the same crew, plus their friends Tom and Grayson.  4 people which is a crowd but will do it on occasion as long as everyone realized we gotta take turns fishing and that kind of thing.  But we went in the backcountry, was really windy the day before and muddy as heck.  But we still picked away, a few black drum and snook to start.  Then a mixed bag with some jacks, trout, reds, etc…  Then at the end of the day when the tide got high we crushed some nice reds and snooks so awesome finish!  We’re back to filming our YouTube show this Wednesday and fishing a few more days at the end of the week.

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

Last couple of days. Fishings been good! Now the wind machine is cranking up for a little bit might make things a little tougher. But yesterday great day filming the new Bud n Mary’s YouTube show with my dad, clay and bill broach. Lots of snook, redfish, couple monster black drums including Bills biggest ever, had a tarpon on for 10 minutes that we opened the hook on, small Goliath’s and finished with a nice tripletail. It’ll be another epic episode! And today was just fun fishing with Frank Come and my sister in law Sara. Lots of redfish, snook, black drum including a handful of nice 10 to 15 lb fish. And a couple small Goliath’s.

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

Got out for a fun trip today with my wife Elizabeth, and our friends Travis and Virginia.  They hadn’t really seen any of the mainland everglades before even though they live here, and Virginia really loves birds too so she was super excited.  We caught some bait to start the day and then headed back.  Stopped at an island and caught a few snook so a nice start.  Also saw some roseatte spoonbills and other birds.  After that we ran out and wanted to give a shot at a spot where some bigger fish were last week.  I knew the tide was different though but just wanted to see if they were there.  It looked pretty good, and sure enough we got into a mess of redfish!  Nice fish too no super monsters, but many in the 6 to 8 lb range, and a few in the 10 to 12 lb range!  We tried another spot and Virginia got a monster black drum about 25 lbs, and we got a few nice snook that were 8 lbs or so.  Spot #3 produced a couple big snook in the 15-18 lb range!  And a few more smaller redfish.  We then ran through the canals and saw some crocodiles, more birds, a manatee, and a few other creatures like turtles and dolphins.  It was really cool for them.  Just a perfect day and looks like the winds will crank from the south tomorrow, so that may make things a little tough tomorrow.  But it calms down quickly again and looks like it’ll be nice early next week.  There’s lots of cool stuff to catch right now and I have plenty of availability now and in November.

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