Got out with Lee and his wife today just for a short 4 hour half day patch reef fishing trip. The key largo patch reefs have been alive with fish this winter. It had gotten a little tougher in certain areas after the last cold snap. What happened then was on the falling tides, water pouring out of the bay and into the ocean could chill down and dirty up some of the patches in line with the bridges (areas where the bay water comes out to the ocean). Now though things have stabilized and the water is all relatively the same temperature. We had a great day catching a ton of bar jacks and some cero mackerels in the first stop. Jig and shrimp did the trick! Later on we found a variety of snappers and kept a few mangroves and lane snappers for dinner. Also found a good little rock with some nice juvenile groupers on it which were cool for something different. We headed back to the docks around 11:00 am with a load of fish. Plenty for dinner and then some! Looks to be a busy holiday time for me, I’m booked up through xmas, and then on again from the 27th through the 2nd of Jan. So right now I only really have the 26th open and could do a morning half day on the morning of the 23rd (saturday). If anyone wants to go give me a shout!
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
