Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Fishing Islamorada

Fun day with Dad, bean, and our long time friend Alan. From the pictures you wouldn’t believe me if I said it was a tough day 😆 but it kinda was! Hard winds, full moon, and water warmed up again and was very muddy. We got lucky and found a few nice reds in one area and getting one massive bull of 25 lbs or so! After that we didn’t catch much for the next couple hours as we waited for the tide to change. Very muddy everywhere and lots of catfish! Finally the tide turned and we got into a bite of fish in another area. Got a few black drums, two of which were big (for here) 20 and 25 lbs, a couple more nice reds, and a few snook as well though the biggest one we lost at the boat as he got wrapped up. We also found a nice snook in a other area and then got about a 25 lb Cobia which was a treat! His lucky day – we let him go. After that we had quite a few jacks and some lane snappers in a couple spots and got broke off by a couple Goliath groupers. But that was really about our day! Quality over quantity for sure. I know fishing was pretty tough for a few other guys I talked to, definitely not easy right now in the Backcountry with the falling tide, warmer weather, negative tides, and wind making it muddy. May have to mix it up a little more tomorrow morning. Need some more cold weather I think!

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

Well a little something different the last few days.  I had Chris and Paul visiting, along with Steve and another Chris, who were doing some tripletail research.  I’d been in contact with Steve for a few months, and they were trying to get data on tripletail in our area.  They were wanting to catch fish and implant acoustic tags which ping and are picked up by transmitters spread throughout the gulf and areas all throughout the US.  They are wanting to know migration patterns etc…  We booked 4 days originally but fishing was very good so we got it done in 3 days and they cancelled the fourth!  It was pretty cool, day 1 we saw a ton of fish and they got most of their tags out that first day.  Day 2 we didn’t see near as many but they got what they needed out and we saved the last couple tags for day 3 when we were filming as we are going to do a very cool YouTube show on this.  They also got a bunch of genetic data and put out standard spaghetti tags.  If you catch a fish with the double tag it will say please release as these have the acoustic  tags implanted internally.  Day 2 we also caught a big 15+ lb tripletail, biggest I’ve seen in a while so that was pretty cool.  Stay tuned and we should have the YouTube video up in a few more days or early next week at the latest.

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

Great 3/4 day with Drew, Andrew, and Molly! Steady bite of reds mostly slot size and one above. A few black drum including a nice 18 lber and PB for Drew. And a good handful of snook, Andrews first. Also a few nice trout.  Seems fish are kinda spread out at the moment the last few days.  Really having to work around and pick a fish or two off each spot.  But things can change in a hurry, once things get adjusted to the cooler weather I think it’ll be rocking and rolling again.

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

Got back on the water after a good break for thanksgiving.  We all got some colds and stomach bugs so time off the water was good too.  Unfortunately my anglers today had a little something too and our day got cut short.  But we managed to get on a good snook bite catching a couple dozen or so, and a small cobia plus a few trout.  With the cold front that came in things cooled off a bit again, but a lot of areas that were red hot for me before my trip didnt have much going on but they should get good again as the weather stabilizes.  Back at it tomorrow!

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

Return customers David and Kathy came down to fish with me again and brought the kids along this time as well.  We had a great day starting off with some lunker redfish that have been around.  A lot of 10 to 15 lb fish very nice to see!  We caught probably 20 or so and then left ’em alone as some other boats were moving in.  We worked around hard for the next couple hours it was a little tough for a bit, we managed to pick a few small fish off a few spots, and then a few spots without much of anything.  Tried my area where I’d found some big monster fish the last few days but it didn’t look too good there, muddy water and ripping tide, and no bites.  We had time to make one last big move thanks to being in the Contender with some speed, and we got on a good spot finishing out the day with another dozen redfish, a few more snook, a black drum, and a sheepshead.  So all in all a great day when you looked at the scorecard.

I’m off until next week going out of town for Thanksgiving.  I hope everyone has a great holiday.  I’ll be back to fishing hard next Wednesday.  The whole week before Christmas is open if anyone wants to go fishing, just read my latest reports you can see it’s been good.

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