Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Fishing Islamorada

Got out with Andy and his stepson Trey for a 3 quarter day today. Haven’t fished the last few days as I’ve been home alone with my son having fun. They wanted to catch some snook so we gave that a try. Looked for pilchards in a few spots heading out but didn’t see much in the bay, though a buddy of mine found some out on the ocean side and gave us a few scoops. We ended up catching everything on shrimp though anyhow! The boys each got several snook including a couple nice ones, Trey getting the largest. Andy got a 20 lb tarpon on light tackle later on too which was awesome, but unfortunately he didn’t cooperate for pictures. Trey got a black drum and a big jack crevelle too. The water was the best looking I’ve seen it around the cape areas where we often fish which is a good thing, hopefully with some more cold weather fish will pile in there! Back at it tomorrow with these guys not sure what we are gonna do, but it is suppose to blow a little bit!

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

Well had some free time this weekend so tried something I’d been meaning to for a while. Went with my friend Vic and hit some of his bass holes in homestead! Kind of a last minute deal but met him and a few others up there. We fished a few canals and one pond mostly throwing topwaters though tried some worms too. Not a lot of action but Vic got a couple peacocks at the first stop. I had one bite but missed it and a few other followers. The next stop I got a little largemouth bass and so did Vic. After that we tried the other end of this area and found a mix of fish. I got a larger largemouth here, then a cichlid, and finally my peacock! Not a big one but the right one. After that we tried a pond near the overpass where we saw the most fish we had seen. We switched over to weighted worms but never had any bites. The bass were interested but just not wanting to feed it seemed. After that I called it a day and headed home. Fun stuff and was a cool experience, plus got to catch my first homestead peacock bass and cichlid. Think I will try it again some time for sure.

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

Got out with Bruce, Dan, and Alan today, return customers who come down from Miami to visit the Keys. The weather was gorgeous with light northeasterly winds. They originally wanted to do a half day, but wanted to target snook. Most of the areas where we snook fish in the everglades are an hour run, so unless you get lucky and hit ’em good in your first or second stop, it can be tough to do with only a couple hours of fishing time. Plus with the way fishing has been lately with all the nasty water around and temperature fluctuations, where the bite is has been changing day by day so more time lets you work more areas, fish different tides, etc… Today also was almost one of those days where we jokingly say it’s too pretty to do that kind of fishing… as when it gets calm and warm in the ‘snook areas’ especially in the winter, it can often be very buggy and tougher fishing. Often times your ‘open water’ areas can be more productive on days like this. Anyways we did manage to get in on a decent bite first thing on the last of the falling tide and the bugs weren’t too bad, not red hot but I think we managed to catch 7 or 8 snook and probably missed another half dozen. This was an area that few days ago there wasn’t much of anything as the tide was incoming those days and bringing lots of muddy ugly water in. Once the tide turned we backtracked and fished some areas where I’d had luck the last few days. Unfortunately today there wasn’t much going on there, I was actually a bit surprised. We worked a couple areas with the trolling motor without a sniff aside from a few catfish, then tried anchoring in another spot that had been real good when the water was colder, but nothing at all there today aside from a few catfish. No drum or redfish today either – they definitely prefer the cooler water temperatures and it has risen up from a few days ago. After that we tried one other creek that I had caught a few redfish in yesterday. We did manage to get another snook there, and then had another good bite I thought was a snook but ended up being a very large hardhead catfish! Anyways I was glad we were able to catch a few fish and enjoy a beautiful day in everglades national park.

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

Another great day on the H20 with Ron and his son Mark. They swordfished yesterday with my brother Nick Stanczyk and got one to the boat. Today we mixed it up a bit in the backcountry. Hit the Everglades to start and boy was it buggy! With the lighter winds and warming trend the noseums were thick. We didn’t get a whole lot at our first stop except bug bites so we tried another area. This was a little more open and the bugs relented. We got into a decent snook bite and landed quite a few fish. We then moved around a bit and Ron got a nice slot size snook! Mark got a couple more smaller ones too. After that we tried elsewhere and Mark got a couple of redfish which was cool. We then ran and tried the gulf… Lots of nasty brown water out there. Looked for tripletails but no luck with that. We finally found some cleaner water near a mackerel hole I like. We chummed for a while without much luck but then a few fish started biting. We got a few mackerels including one nice large one, a couple big ladyfish, a bluefish, and a good handful of jacks and blue runners. We didn’t have the best tide, usually prefer it falling, but you have to work with what you got! All in all a good mixed bag day… the boys were very happy with two good fishing trips in the keys. Hopefully the mackerels will show up a bit better later this month. I think with a little more cold and cleaner water they will.

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

Another fabulous day out on the water here in Islamorada, Florida Keys. Got out for some ‘fun fishing’ with my dad, Richard Stanczyk Sr. and his friend and neighbor Peter. Temperatures stayed cool last night in the low 60s in the keys and the winds calmed down somewhat to 10-15 mph northeast and got even calmer by the afternoon. The water temperatures in the backcountry dipped further, getting down around 64 in some of the areas we fished first thing in the morning. Sometimes though that is a recipe for good fishing and today that was the case! We were able to get our hands on some good live shrimp which is usually all you need when the water is as cold as it was. The water had cleaned up a bit more from yesterday so we found fish in a few more areas. Started off slow but as things warmed up and the tide got moving, the bite picked up. We picked away at a handful of black drums early on. Saw quite a few juvenile tarpon rolling around but they weren’t too interested in our offerings, but that didn’t surprise me with as chilly as it was. After an hour or so of that we got into a good school of redfish and snook! It was fast and furious for a little while and we landed probably 8 snook and half a dozen reds. That slowed down and the catfish showed up so we decided to move. I tried some shoreline areas as it was a little later and things got even warmer. We didn’t have a whole lot of luck with that, but we did manage a nice snook at least. After that we just looked around a bit and enjoyed the beautiful morning and all the wild bird life. We tried a couple more shorelines on the way home and caught a few more catfish. We were just about to give up and then all of a sudden Peter got a snook, and then my dad hooked a larger one. His ended up being the snook of the day, a nice 8 lber or so.

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