Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Fishing Islamorada

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

Got out with Tim, Bridgette, and Sam today for a full day trip.  We headed out early and hit the backcountry.  I fished an island to start where we found some redfish on the previous afternoon.  They were waiting for us which was nice!  Took a little to get ’em going but we ended up catching close to thirty redfish in Islamorada on this morning.  After an hour or so of that, we made our way back to the creeks and canals of the mainland cape sable area.  I ran to the further end as I was thinking catching the tide change would be an ideal scenario.  We hit a couple spots and picked a few redfish and a black drum, not a whole lot going on though.  Water was still super muddy from the hard blow a few days ago.  As the tide rose we worked our way inside to some other spots.  Fishing got better, next stop we got some snook, a few more redfish, and a juvenile goliath grouper!  We made another move and got into some more snook and a few more reds.  Then one last move yielded even more snook and redfish.  It was good to see as when I fished back there in the morning yesterday, it was very slow.  However I think that was due to the sharp drop in temperature we experienced.  We do have some more cold coming later this week, however the fish should be more adjusted to it as it won’t be dropping from 80 degrees.  I have some openings starting this weekend and several next week.  Give me a shout if you want to get in on some of the winter time florida keys fishing!

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

Got out with Jake and Jason for the day.  We had a pretty stiff change in temperature, it had been in the 80s for a little bit here and last night it plummeted down into the low 60s.  Sharp drop in water temperature.  Sometimes this can make the fishing tough as the fish haven’t had time to slowly adjust as they usually do when we ease from summer, to fall, to winter, with more gradual cool downs.  Anyways water temps were in the high 60s and early in the morning nothing wanted to bite.  We jumped around from spot to spot, did get one black drum and a trout but that was it aside from some catfish.  Water was super muddy too with the hard west wind we had the day before as the front came in.  So we bailed and then tried to find some reds on the bottom of the tide around some flats.  Caught one in the first stop, but that was it.  We made one more big move and at first that seemed to not be producing.  But finally around 10:30 or so the tide began to change, and the fish started to bite.  We moved and picked away and ended up with about two dozen redfish.  After that we were in search of dinner, we tried an island for some snapper in the early afternoon.  However the redfish were swarming in the snapper hole!  We caught probably another 18 redfish here, and a few snappers but none that were big enough.  We tried a ditch for some trout, but it was loaded with ladyfish that we enjoyed bending the rod with.  Anyways all in all we caught a good amount of fish but really had to work for it.  I usually love the cold weather fishing, but I always tell people you have to catch it right.  When it’s been bordering on hot for a while and then all of a sudden you have a massive cool down, usually you are going to have a tough time.  However the fish should have had a chance to adjust now and we have some more cold weather on the way later this week, so it should get back into normal winter time mode here..

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