Got out with Andy and his stepson Trey who were down here for a couple days of fishing in Key Largo over the weekend. Trey wanted to try and catch his first snook, which I told them key largo snook fishing in November is usually a fairly good bet… The water temperatures typically are starting to cool off, we get a ton of baitfish showing up with the first northerly winds, and it’s often a little less busy on the water being off season. All those things make it a great time for hitting the key largo backcountry fishing for fun. We actually were not able to catch our pilchards in the morning as they were a little too shallow to get to, but we brought plenty of shrimp and another captain did bring me a few scoops of pilchards later. However all of our action came on the shrimp anyways. Both Andy and Trey got their first snook, and several other nice fish too. I think we landed a half dozen total and maybe missed a couple more. Trey had the fish of the day which was likely in the 32 inch range, though we let all these fish go. Later on Andy got a nice little 25 lb tarpon which was loads of fun. We didn’t get him boat side but the memories will still surely last. The tarpon fishing in key largo is usually not great this time of year, but with the warm weather we’ve had after the early front that hit is in late october, there have still been quite a few around. Later on things slowed down a little and we didn’t fish a full day, just a 6 hour trip, but we tried several other spots and Trey got a black drum and a nice jack crevelle. That was about all she wrote and we made our way back towards the marina in key largo. The following day I had the boys out and we caught some mangrove snapper for dinner, some big ladyfish and more jacks, and a couple spanish mackerel. It was awesome for them as they each landed probably half a dozen difference species of fish neither of them had caught before. I’m back at it tomorrow for a full day of snook fishing and then fairly open throughout the week if anybody wants to go!
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
