Fishing Reports

Great day with Mitch and Mary visiting from Oklahoma. It was a chilly morning as temperatures dropped slightly and a little windy, but definitely gets worse! Once we got into the backcountry though it was nice just a little cold. Fishing was good we got into a great drum and sheepshead bite early! Mary got a lunker drum 30ish lbs I’d say, her biggest fish ever! We got a bunch of smaller ones too but decent size, some snook, redfish, and a bunch of nice size sheepshead too. I just got pics of the first one but we caught quite a few that were bigger probably a dozen in all. After an hour or so things slowed down. We found a few more snook and redfish in a other spot. Mitch had a nice snook on that threw the hook unfortunately. Later we hit another area near the tide change. More redfish here and some nice size trout! Also another snook. After that we hit a spot that was good yesterday but not much today, though did get a trout there. Lastly things got nice and the wind laid down, we gave the monster snook hole a try again. Nothing but catfish for a little bit, but then we got a nice black drum and a few more mediums sized ones. Finally a huge thump and screaming drag! I passed Mitch the rod and the fish made a big run then went under the boat. Unfortunately he made a few tricky moves and was a little hard to keep up with and we got tangled around the underneath of the boat. The one that got away! Oh well it happens and those are the ones that keep you coming back. But all in all another fantastic day. Just got booked for tomorrow and I’m pretty busy through the next 10 days or so. Looks like big weather/cold front coming Sunday, should cool off but when the dust settles and smoke clears, I’ll expect some big fishing!  I do have Friday open this week if anyone wants to go, conditions look pretty good.  After that I don’t have anything available until the 30th or so.

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

Some days you are lucky and get to see something very special out there fishing. Today was one of those days! My dad caught his largest snook ever as a young boy, early teenage years or so. A whopping 26 lber that won the South Florida MET tournament. Today some 60 years later he found one that may have been bigger! I took my dad Richard Sr and our buddy Ron Modra out for the day.  It was our last fish of the day, we were checking that ‘one last spot.’ Conditions weren’t great it was fairly windy out of the northwest, weak current, and kind muddy water. We didn’t expect much but you never know right? Anyways he hooked up to something ridiculous that screamed out a good 30 or 40 yards of line. It slowed down and made a big circle around the boat, then ran out about as the same distance but in the other direction. Dad was off chasing it just like he was a kid again on the shores of Miami Beach. It shook it’s head and didn’t seem to want to turn. I was thinking maybe snook, but now was thinking maybe we snagged a shark or possibly a large cobia. But cobia usually come up to the top where you can see ’em pretty quickly. We had to chase it down with the boat, luckily my dad is a good angler and knew to let the fish run when it wanted to run. This was especially important as we had the fish on a fairly small hook, as I wasn’t expecting such a monster, that could’ve pulled easily or bent out. After another minute or so we eventually got up and down on it. Had to be careful maneuvering the boat with the trolling motor still down and tide going into the wind so it was rough. But we got a good look at the beast finally and I won’t repeat the words that came out after that, but let’s just say it was exciting! The fish was wore out and we got her into the net easily. I didn’t drop it on the deck to measure or anything, or hang it on the boga grip, as these fish are sensitive and I wanted to make sure it would live. It’s hard to say and sometimes pictures don’t do a fish justice, but this thing had a huge gut and was likely the biggest one I’ve had landed on my boat as well. Somewhere between 25 and 30 lbs. We snapped a few good pictures and released her healthily, she swam off just fine! Anyways what a spectacular fish, that’s why I love fishing you can be a 73 year old vet and still catch the fish of a lifetime after all those years! Other than that, we started the day off with a nice juvenile tarpon. A handful of smaller snook later in a couple different spots. And some black drums and redfish too, along with a few trout. Backcountry SLAM! Not a red hot bite by any means as we had high water and weak tide. But a decent pick of fish if you had a little patience. I also investigated some new areas as I like to always do when I’m fun fishing, but we didn’t do much in those spots. Anyways catching that one snook was more than worth it… To hit a home run you gotta swing for the fences!

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

Fun day with Irv and Linda. Irv fished with me last year and caught I think my largest tarpon of the year, close to a 200 lber. Today we had a slick calm day and hit the backcountry and gulf. Started off fishing for reds at the top of the tide. It was pretty good, lots of action and as many as you wanted. We also caught a bunch of mullet as they were swarming. Next stop we fished some shoreline and found some more redfish. More of a pick here but better side fish. We did get a nice 29 incher, over slot fish! Linda also got a nice sheepshead and a big tripletail about an 11 lber. After that we ran offshore and tried a few gulf spots. Didn’t find a whole lot on the wrecks we hit, mostly Jack’s. But we did we across a school of tarpon we messed with but no bites, though did get a shark. Later we found some big wads of mackerel eating baits. We drifted through and caught plenty on our jigs. Tried one more spot on the way home for a Cobia but no luck, though did get a few trout and snapper. All in all lots of fun. Looks like it’ll be cooling down again but not suppose to be super windy. I’m fairly open this week, just busy Tuesday, so if you wanna go lemme know. Conditions look pretty favorable for the backcountry!

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

Fantastic fishing despite the cold weather today! I had Pete and his grandsons Alec and Ben out. Things cooled off and got into the low 50s in the backcountry. Not too bad of a ride out though, windy but definitely gets worse with some major fronts. We hit the creeks and fishing was good! We found a bunch of redfish early on. As things warmed up and we got more dialed in on our casting, a few snook started to show up. You really had to get your shrimp right in the sticks to entice the snook bite, if you were a foot out they wouldn’t grab it. After a bit we shuffled around a bit. More of the same really, redfish in every spot and a handful of snook in most. Did get a cool sheepshead too and a few trout and snapper. Caught fish every where we went which was nice. Super low tide by noon time, so had to be careful running around. Never caught a black drum today which surprised me, usually they show up stronger when it cools off. But we may get another big push of them with more cold weather on the way next week. I’m wide open this coming week starting Saturday with exception to Sunday and Tuesday. If you wanna go fish it’s good. Cold this week may really get ’em chewing!

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

Got out with Tom, Chuck, and Donna today for a 3/4 day trip.  We fished in the everglades.  Things cooled down a little as we have a cold front coming in, with a bit of a breeze out of the north.  We jumped into some creeks with the falling tide where I knew we’d have to spend the morning, as with the tide getting low we wouldn’t be able to get out.  But fishing had been good in there so I felt confident.  We ended up having great fishing, catching a ton of redfish early on.  We picked away at a few snook, but as the tide started to turn, the reds cooled off and the snook moved in!  We had a handful of nice size fish, and lost our two biggest unfortunately.  Tom hooked a nice juvenile tarpon too that we had on for a minute but he threw the hook.  Later on we moved and found a bunch more snook on a tree, and even a few trout as well in one of the creeks.   We gave it an extra 30 minutes of fishing as I was worried about getting through some areas with the tide, but no big deal.  All in all a great day.  It’s suppose to get into the 50s the next couple nights, so that should turn on our cold weather fishing.  Some bigger snook and drum should move in, and next week we have some more cold on the way too.  This is what we wait for in January!  I have plenty of openings starting Saturday, if you want to get out give me a shout.

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