Got out with Blayze and his folks today for a half day key largo fishing trip. He really wanted to try and catch redfish, which I said could be tough on a half day as we have to make a decent run and are at the mercy of whatever the tides/conditions are. But I figured one area we might catch some other things if the reds weren’t happening. I was loaded with bait from catching some the day before, nice razor belly pilchards and sandy key pilchards. The key largo bait fishing has been a little tougher but being slow right now I can often bait fish on my days off before trips, so that’s a plus for the customers! We headed out early with some shrimp and these pilchards and hit some bay islands in key largo. The first held some snook, though not many. We worked hard to catch 4 or so, mostly small guys, but it was fun. We did see some baby tarpon rolling around too but no luck with them biting. After that we bailed and I tried a snapper hole on the way home to hopefully get a little more action and some dinner for the family. Well we did find some nice snappers, but mixed in were the elusive redfish! We caught about a dozen, several nice size fish too in the 4 to 6 lb range (nice for our redfish anyhow). It was so great to see a good group of these guys, as the last couple years they have been hard to find due to losing habitat from algae blooms etc… but I think the hurricane has helped clean out some ‘old school’ areas and these fish are moving back in. It’s wonderful! We also got about a 9 lb snook there too which was awesome. Anyways Blayze had a great birthday trip to Key Largo, he caught a 350 lb swordfish with my brother yesterday too. It doesn’t get any better then that.
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
