Got out with Tim and his daughter Bridgette today for a full day of key largo december backcountry fishing. We decided to mix things up and try a variety of types of fishing. We had a well of pilchards I caught the previous day plus plenty of live shrimp. We found some good snook around some of the mangrove islands in key largo bay to start. Good size ones in the 3 to 6 lb range, they were drag pullers! After that we got into a good mangrove snapper bite. These mangrove snappers in key largo are the best bet for table fare in the backcountry. Nothing really beats them and you can cook them however you want! We then headed out west towards the gulf of mexico to do some key largo spanish mackerel fishing. We put some frozen chum out and started casting our shrimp tipped jigs. Soon the blue runners showed up, then came the mackerels and big ladyfish! We had good action for about an hour, and even got some lane snappers too while doing this. It was a lot of fun. After that we tried to put our big gear out for some tarpon or shark in one of the backcountry channels, however we didn’t have much luck with that not even a sniff! Oh well all in all it was a banner day and was glad to be out there. Looks like this weekend we are getting a good cold front (finally). Look for the black drum and redfish fishing to pick up as we get into ‘winter mode.’ Could (and should) be very good for our inshore key largo fishing.
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
