Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Fishing Islamorada

Well the New Year came and went without incident for me.  I was in bed fairly early knowing I was going to be fishing today and am starting to feel a little under the weather so want to get plenty of rest when I can!  I had George and his son Chris down today who are regular customers of BNM.  They wanted to fish with me and today was the day so we gave it a go.  We left a little early with shrimp and some chum and planned on a mixed bag day.  It warmed up again slightly from yesterday, so the water is still chilly but not really cold enough to fire off the ‘glades fishing we all love in the winter.  We gave it a try anyways and worked several areas hard for a couple fish.  The water did look a little nicer today then the last two days, so hopefully it’ll clean up even more when the temperatures drop on Wednesday night!  Luckily the couple fish we caught were good fish though. George got a nice snook that didnt’ cooperate for pictures, and also a nice 18 lb black drum!  After that it slowed down and we decided to head for open water.  We found a little batch of triple tails far up the coast, nothing big but fun to catch anyways.  Chris caught them all about a half dozen or so.  We didn’t see anything further down the coast as we made our way that way.  We tried a few pieces of structure on the shoreline and out in the gulf, hoping for a good quality fish.  No luck in either place though, the gulf spot was still very muddy looking.  The shore line place looked reasonably good and I had caught fish there a couple times in the last week.  But just not today.  After that we headed towards the mackerel grounds.  No more triple tails on the way there, I was surprised figured we’d see a few more.  But thankfully the spanish mackerel fishing in the gulf was very good.  We caught probably 16 or so, with a few blue runners and big ladyfish mixed in.  The boys kept a few to blacken this evening.  After that we called it a day.  All in all not a bad day on the water, seems par for the course the last few days having to work hard for a handful of quality fish and then there is something else we can do in the afternoon that’s been quantity vs. quality, if you will.  I have the next couple days then open again on the 4th, which is when the temperature drop will be happening for several days after that.  I’ll likely take a day to rest if I continue to feel under the weather after the next couple days, but that is really the time you want to come for January everglades winter time fishing.  Tides and conditions look favorable starting on the 4th, give me a shout if you are interested.

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

Got out with Adam and his dad Marc today down from Virginia, they had fished with me before.  We had a cold front come in the other day but not a dramatic drop in temperature, rather a much slower cool down.  It got down into the low 60s last night and will stay that way a few nights before then dropping into the low 50s.  Fishing wasn’t very easy out back very muddy and a slight algae looking tinge of yellow to the water.  We worked a few of the ‘cold day’ spots pretty hard.  We did get a few nice fish though, including a 20 lb drum, a smaller drum, and a couple snook.  All firsts for Adam.  We saw quite a few crocodiles which was cool as well and got up close and personal with one that showed no fear.  After the tide got high we left and tried a spot for redfish but didn’t have any luck there.  We then decided to give the gulf a try as the wind had laid out nicely and I figured that’d be more guaranteed action.  It took 20 minutes or so but the mackerels started to bite well plus a few bluefish and some blue runners.  We kept a few mackerels for dinner for the boys to enjoy.  All in all not a bad day the guys were thrilled with what we caught even though I thought it was a little slow – sometimes you get a little spoiled doing this every day!  I hope everyone has a Happy New Year, I’ll be back at it again tomorrow hopefully the bite picks up a little more in the backcountry in 2018!

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

Got out for a full day with Vince, Steven, and their dad Roy.  Vince fished with me a year ago and had a good time catching nice cobia and other assorted species.  We caught pilchards and had nice live shrimp and headed into the backcountry everglades.  Snook was the primary target, yesterday we caught a handful but I saw where some boats were doing well with them so figured we’d try it today.  However a front came in and dropped water temperatures slightly as well as kicked up a northwest wind.  Today the water looked totally different compared to yesterday… very muddy and in some areas even some algae seemed to be coming in.  We worked one island moat very hard with our live baits and only caught one snapper.  We tried another island and did get a snook their as well as a juvenile goliath grouper and a monster 17 inch snapper.  After that though it quieted down.  We checked the western mainland shoreline and there was where the water had a yellow algae-like tinge, no bites in one creek that looked good other wise.  We ran back towards home and checked a few areas but I didn’t even bother to stop as I could tell it was a mud-out and wouldn’t be good.  We tried some other islands in the bay and found a good load of nice size snappers which were great as the boys wanted some table fare.  We also picked a few redfish too which was cool.  We hit another island after that and more nice size snappers, we got our limit of 15 for the 3 guys and then headed home.  Overall we made out OK but not easy by any means, never like it when a weak front comes in I usually want it to get cold fast.  But it is suppose to get colder and into the 50s so our winter time bite of nice snook, reds, and drum should turn back on.  Fishing through the 3rd then I’m open after that if anyone wants to go conditions should be favorable!

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

Got out with Tom and John today for a full day of backcountry fishing in the Florida Keys in December.  John is a regular to Bud n Marys and has fished with several guides out of there, and it was Johns first time in the backcountry saltwater fishing!  They were down from chicago where it is getting very cold.  The guys wanted some fish for dinner and sharks were a request as well as possibly snook or tarpon.  I said we might be able to do that, if not we’d give it a good try!  We caught pilchards to start our day and had some nice live shrimp too.  Bait was fairly easy which was good.  We tried some snook areas I hadn’t fished in a while.  Didn’t have much luck in the first area, we worked it hard making several moves.  We could hear snook popping our ‘freebie’ baits, but they wouldn’t bite our hooked bait.  We quit after an hour or so without any luck and tried another area.  There were 3 boats ahead of me here so that was discouraging, but christmas week can get packed in spots as just about every guide is out on the water.  We squeezed in and did hook a couple nice snook but they didn’t stay buttoned for us, one cut us off on a tree and the other pulled the hook.  But we had a couple shots, the other boats were catching a few but I dind’t want to crowd them so we left.  We tried an area for sharks and tarpon, had decent shark action and the guys each caught several blacktips.  We also did hook a nice 90 lb tarpon or so, but he unfortunately threw the hook straight away!  I’d been lucky lately not missing many bites but it was due to happen.  We then tried a spot for more snook and found a few redfish which was cool, and also caught a couple snook as well plus missed a few more fish.  We are catch and release with the redfish so we still had to get some dinner.  I didn’t have much time we high tailed it to some snapper areas, first stop was a bust.  The second stop though we hit the jackpot!  We caught our limit of nice 13-15 inch mangrove snappers in about 20 minutes.  Just incredible it usually takes you a couple hours to get that many but they were just eating every bait that hit the water.  The pilchards helped too getting the good size ones.  After that we called it a day and it was another good one with a tough start but strong finish.  Back at it tomorrow, looks like it’ll be getting slightly colder each night through the weekend, with it possibly getting into the 50s again early next week!  Should be good for our standard winter routine – snook, redfish, drum, mackerel, etc…  Will not be good for the little tarpon bite we’ve had.

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

Got out with John and his son Andrew today.  They are down from Wisconsin for the badgers/canes orange bowl game!  They wanted to try and mix things up as they had read my recent reports and I’ve been doing that a lot lately.  It’s nice some times to try different things especially when some things aren’t always red hot.  We hit the mackerel grounds first and it was a little bumpy getting their with the 20mph north wind, but we made it OK.  The spanish mackerel were chewing we must’ve caught over 2 dozen in little over an hour.  We then hit the tarpon channels and the tarpon were definitely there!  I knew though with the northerly wind they might not be real happy again.  We had plenty of shark action and definitely had tarpon around us, but they didn’t want to play.  Once the tide quit the wind also laid down a good bit.  We decided to go look for tripletails on the buoys.  That was productive we saw several of them and the boys each caught 1 and had several other shots but we had some pulled hooks and miscues, but fun doing it which is what counts.  We then tried a snook spot back around the mainland and didn’t get any snook, but we did get a very nice 6 or 7 lb redfish for Andrew!  The wind now kicked back more to the east and picked up a little bit again.  We steamed back to the tarpon grounds to try that again with the tide falling now.  Didn’t see quite as many fish but we did see a few and anchored up in that area.  Unfortunately though no bites again but we did get more sharks, and Andrew got a big 90-100 lb black tip which really put on a show!  All in all another great day though with good variety and plenty of action.  Back at it tomorrow I’ll likely do a similar game plan as it’s been working for me.  Wind is suppose to be lighter at 10 mph, and tomorrow night we will be getting back down into the mid 60s so the tarpon thing will likely be over for a while after tomorrow.  Then it’ll get slightly colder each night for the next several nights through the weekend.  Should be good for our drum/red/snook fishing in the ‘glades and I’m sure the mackerels won’t mind either.

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