Category: Fishing Reports

Got out with Adam and Marc today for a full day of key largo december fishing.  Things cooled down with a mild front but it’s suppose to get even colder in a few days, down into the low 50s here… the real deal cold!  Today the bite wasn’t super hot out back, as it didn’t get quite cold enough I don’t think to really fire off the ‘winter time’ holes for snook, drum, etc… plus there was a bit of algae looking water.  Though we managed a few nice fish including a 20 lb black drum and a few snook.  Adam was designated angler so he got to catch them all, for one person not bad.  After we hit enough of those areas, we tried some open water stuff.  I had a little spot I’d been catching a few redfish once in a while.  We tried that but didn’t have any luck today.  So we ventured further into the gulf of mexico to do a little spanish mackerel fishing.  That can be a day saver this time of year, it’s usually easy living in the right area.  Just hang your chum bag and cast shrimp on jigs.  It was good and we caught probably 10 or so macks, a few bluefish, and 10 blue runners.  Great action for the last hour of the day.  We kept a few mackerel for dinner for the guys and then headed back towards home.  Looks like it may rain a little on tuesday/wednesday, not looking forward to that.  Rain and cold isn’t a good combo!  But fishing should get very good with the cool off especially by late next week I believe.  I have days available after Wednesday so look me up!  Everyone be safe and have a happy new year.

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

Got out with Rich and Luke Cromwell today for a full day of fishing in Key Largo.  We hit the backcountry first and caught a few snook to start the day.  They weren’t all over the place we had to check a few spots but did get on a little bite for a bit.  Had one nice fish of 10+ lbs or so to the boat but before we could net him he cut the line with his sharp gill plate!  After that we caught quite a few trout with some jacks mixed in, didn’t find any more snook which is what we were hoping for.  We decided to then try the gulf as the weather was calm and it looked nice out there.  Plenty of triple tail were floating on the crab buoys.  Key largo triple tail fishing can be good this time of year and in the spring, but it’s much nicer when you have calm days to run and look.  We caught several little guys and eventually got a keeper.  Then we found a monster that was close to 15 lbs!  We hooked him and had him boat side, but unfortunately the hook pulled on him.  Bad luck!  We shook it off and then we gave some tarpon fishing a try.  We found plenty of tarpon where they had been several days ago.  They weren’t really biting yesterday though as we had a mini-cold front over xmas and they just don’t like that this time of year especially.  Today though we worked hard and eventually fooled one and Luke caught a nice 90 lb tarpon!  December key largo tarpon fishing can be very hit or miss, but today was a hit thankfully.  We also got about a 20 lb cobia which was a cherry on top of the day.  After that we tried one other area with our light rods to possibly find a snook or redfish, but no luck and we headed home.  Just a great day with all kinds of variety!  Hopefully the good fishing holds up through the years end.

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

Well with the warm calm weather we’ve had the water temperatures in key largo got up to the high 70s which is good recipe for some winter time tarpon fishing!  Tarpon showed up in droves out from the gulf and we had caught a big one yesterday and two big ones today!  Fish in the 90 lb range, 100 lb range, and even up to 150 lbs today.  It was incredible and not something you get to see every day this time of year but with the unusually warm weather anything can happen.  We also caught several big sawfish yesterday and got one today too, plus some blacktip sharks.  It was like Jurassic park out there!  Also the spanish mackerel fishing in the gulf has been great and almost a sure a bet as you can have for fishing.  Plenty of good action for novice and experienced anglers, plus they make great bait for bigger stuff.  Yesterday we found some triple tails and caught a couple of them, didn’t see a ton but just a handful.  Today we didn’t do that but we did finish the day with some redfish, snook, and big mangrove snappers!  December fishing in Key largo really doesn’t get much better than this.  Christmas week coming up here is very busy for me, but I still have the 26th open, or a morning half day trip open tomorrow if anyone wants to go.  I have bait put away and know where some tarpon are so tomorrow morning could be pretty good….  Otherwise check with me for dates next year I have plenty of openings and fishing has been great the last couple months as you can see!

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

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

Got out for a fun fishing day today with my dad and friend Capt. Dave.  It is the last day we will likely have the very cool water temperatures as things are starting to get back on a warming trend.  This is ideal conditions for catching big key largo black drum!  They love it cold and when it is calm the water gets nice so you can have a good shot at getting one.  We had to work at it but we got a nice 20 lber or so, very good fish on light tackle!  The trick for drum is working a nice live shrimp very slowly on the bottom.  They like hard bottom so areas where you can feel that roughness when you jig are usually good.  I like to keep the bait fairly still and just twitch it every 15 seconds or so.  If you don’t get a bite in a couple minutes, then try to recast.  We occasionally throw a few shrimp bits out for chum too, that can be of help.  But thats not all we caught today….  We caught a bunch of redfish and some snook too!  Several nice 8-12 lb snook and plenty of medium sized guys.  And the redfishing in key largo has gotten so much better since hurricane IRMA.  We’ve really had lots of new structure created that holds fish.  It also cleaned out many areas that had been silted up over the years, so now you have good hard exposed bottom that the fish crave.  We found fish in quite a few areas today, and I know many other guides had good days fishing as well.  Some areas I hadn’t hit much lately were holding fish which was great to see.  You never know when you need those little aces in the hole.  If you are down in Key Largo this next week give me a shout, I don’t have anything on the books until the 23rd and fishing has been very good as you can see from my recent reports.

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

Got out with Pam and Lars today and we had just an epic day of december key largo fishing.  The weather was still very cold for here, but the winds died off yesterday afternoon and it was very calm.  The water got nice looking in many areas as when it is cold and calm, the sediment drops out of the water and the fish love this.  The bait tank was loaded with some nice, lively, large shrimp.  Shrimp pour through the bay when it gets this cold, and the fish usually are keyed in on them in the backcountry.  They don’t like to struggle much for a meal, so a shrimp on a jig head worked very slow works wonders.  We got on an epic bite of snook, redfish, black drum, and even got a couple small tarpon!  Just a fabulous day and seemed we couldn’t do anything wrong.  We landed over 3 dozen fish it was fabulous.  Later on we ran home via the gulf side and caught some triple tails off the crab pot buoys.  Several little guys but one keeper for dinner.  We also had caught a couple trout before which we kept for dinner as well, so just enough for a good meal for the 2 of them.  Next week I have plenty of availability so if you are wanting to get out on a key largo fishing trip in the winter, look me up!

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

Well a big ol’ cold front rolled in yesterday and chilled things down a bit.  Today we really felt the bite of it as the water temperatures finally dropped too and got to a bone chilling 58 degrees in some parts of the key largo backcountry.  Fishing can be good when this happens believe it or not, you just have to know where to go.  It can take some patience but luckily today they were fairly happy so it didn’t take long.  We got the key largo black drum going pretty good early on after the first 20 minutes of fishing or so.  A shrimp on a knocker rig or just plain jighead did the trick.  We usually just put a glob of shrimp meat on the hook and the stinkier you can get it the better, then just set it out and twitch it every so often.  No large drums but plenty of ’em.  After that the snook started to roll in.  Here we would fish a live shrimp, head hooked on a jig head.  Moving them slowly up and down would entice the bite.  The snook were kind of in shock and didn’t fight much, but still fun to catch ’em.  We later found some more snook in another area, and got a redfish too.  Picked away at a couple sheepshead and trout in another area after that, and ended up finding a few more black drums in some spots I hadn’t fished in a while.  That was good to see always nice to have another spot to try when the going gets tough.  All in all a fun day on the water I think we caught over 50 fish.  Just doesn’t get any better than that.  If you are down in key largo in december and want to go fishing, give me a shout.  Christmas week is right around the corner and will be very busy, but before christmas I have openings and am still offering my special rates after hurricane IRMA before our 2018 season begins on xmas!

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

We got out today for a december key largo fishing charter into the backcountry.  The winds were ripping early on 30 mph out of the north as a cold front just came in last night.  The air temperatures steadily dropped and continued to stay cold throughout the day though the direct sun did warm us up a little.  It was a little bumpy in a few spots making the crossing into the backcountry but overall not really too bad.  We were jigging live shrimp in the key largo everglades areas.  We had a solid bite of black drum and snook, and got a couple reds and even a nice tarpon too!  It was really good fishing and well worth the price of admission.  You never know when these cold fronts roll in if it’ll be really good or really bad, I’ve seen it go both ways.  I always tell people you don’t know if you don’t go, and that’s the truth!  I think the boys each landed well into the double digits on fish so they were plenty happy.  The ride back through the bay in key largo was nice as the winds subsided to 15 mph.  Looks to stay that way the next several days and we should have a great week of fishing.  The temperatures will stay chilly however, but with lighter winds and colder water the sediment should drop out of the water and make the fishing even better.  We’ll have a report tomorrow so stay tuned!

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

Had a couple half days the last two days fishing in the Key largo backcountry.  Yesterday was a paid trip with Robert and Bradley.  We had some penned up pilchards and hit some mangrove islands in the bay of key largo.  We found some good size mangrove snappers, which were great tablefare for the local resturants afterwards.  We also got the snook going pretty good.  We landed 7 or so and missed a few others.  Robert got the two biggest ones, both around 6 lbs or so nice fish.  It was a fun little half day fishing charter in key largo!  Today I went with my friend Capt. Bill Bassett just for a relaxing fun fishing day.  We wanted to try some areas we hadn’t been in a while and fish some new stuff too.  Pilchards were easily obtainable with light winds on the ocean side we found a herd of them and filled the well in a couple throws.  We found some good snook in the first area where we had fished some years ago but not recently.  Also got one nice redfish.  We got out of there before the tide dropped too low and tried some other ares.  Not much luck in the next stop, but the 3rd stop which was new to both of us had some life.  We found a lot of baby barracudas, some big sharks swimming around, and tons of small mangrove snappers.  It looked very lively with good water flow and healthy looking water.  At some point we figure there is probably some better quality life there, so another feather in the cap to try some time.  Looks like some cold weather coming this weekend, tomorrow night actually.  It’ll be dropping into the 50s for several nights through into early next week.  This should be good for some of our drum, snook, and redfish in the backcountry.  Look for some epic fishing early next week… I’m booked tuesday and taking my dad Monday, but I am available Sunday if anyone wants to go, or Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday right now too.  Don’t miss out this could be epic – will have a good report hopefully Monday afternoon.

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

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