Category: Fishing Reports

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

Got out for a fun day of fishing with my dad, Richard Stanczyk Sr., friend and marina manager Stephen Byrd, and our friend Capt. Dave Peck.  Dave comes down every year this time of year to vacation and works a little bit running some charters as well.  We decided to fish some areas I hadn’t been too much since the hurricane and scope things out.  It was an awesome day we found a lot of redfish and decent amount of snook in the first couple stops.  These areas had not produced good fish in several years so I was very excited to see such life there again!  We had good action on our live pilchards as well as shrimp.  If you are wondering the the florida keys fishing calendar says about November, it’s usually a great time for those mentioned species.  But this is the best I’ve seen it since the Hurricane so we were loving it.  We then tried another area that I also hadn’t fished much lately, first stop was dead but then we moved a bit and low and behold, we found another good pack of redfish and snook!  We got some nice size snook here as well.  We then found one snook in another spot, as well as a lot of baitfish – threadfin herring!  These complimented our shrimp and pilchards well.  After that we just test out some other spots without much luck, but the tides were quite right for them to be honest.  But the last stop before home we smacked the snook again.  Quite a lot of little guys but we did catch a couple larger specimens.  Capt. Dave did hook about a 10 lber here which was the largest looking of the day, but he got away!  That’s fishing!  Anyways it was so great to see such life in many areas, I think we caught about 45 fish total between the 4 of us.  If you are down in Key Largo and want to go fishing, give me a shout I have several open days before the busy Christmas week!

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

Got out with Terry and his dad Paulie for a full day today.  We mixed it up and decided to fish in the everglades which is usually a good bet for key largo fishing in november.  We also decided afterwards to try the gulf of mexico.  The november spanish mackerel fishing in key largo usually heats up this time of year, though this year it’s been a little slow to start with the lack of cold weather and possibly the hurricane…  Anyways we had a good start we loaded up our live wells with pilchards and brought some shrimp along too.  We picked away at snook in the everglades canals fishing.  Not a red hot bite plus it was a saturday so there were boats everywhere!  But we managed a couple fish at each spot the first 3 spots we stopped at.  Paulie got the two largest ones, not bad for a 90 year old he had a lot of fun!  After that things slowed down a bit but we did see some cool crocodiles and wild bird life.  We decided to test out the gulf fishing and it was a good move!  We got the spanish mackerel chumming with frozen chum.  We had action on our shrimp with jigs as well as the live pilchards.  Paulie wasn’t as comfortable in the open water though it was farily calm so I assisted him with the casting and just used the live bait that we could let sit out there, while Terry jigged with shrimp at a faster pace.  We caught probably 8 or so mackerels, and probably had another 8 or 10 bites.  This is the best I’ve seen the mackerel fishing this year.  This was all in about an hour or so.  After the tide slowed down so did the bite.  But we also got some mixed bag action with lane snapper, blue runners, blue fish, and large lady fish.  Great way to end our day of key largo backcountry fishing!  Have plenty of open days the next couple weeks, give me a shout if you’d like to come on down!

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

Got out on the patch reefs of key largo today.  November fishing in Key Largo gives us some great options out in these areas.  The water cools down and the shallow water ‘patch reefs’ become alive with fish.  Usually we have a good variety including porgy, snapper, hogfish, grouper, and more…  The last couple times I was out however the snapper definitely dominated.  We got some good size mangrove snappers, nothing huge but respectable 12-14 inchers… great for some table fare!  There was also a good mix of yellowtail and mutton snapper mixed in.  Other than that we had some action with yellow bar jacks.  These fish are great actually as sashimi believe it or not.  We ended our day chumming with our live pilchards and got into a great little barracuda bite!  Key largo barracuda fishing is lots of fun on light tackle.  These guys were in the 4 to 6 lb range, perfect for our light gear.  We had to up our leader size to keep them from biting us off, but it was loads of fun.  They pull just as hard as a spanish mackerel and jump a little bit too.  It was a great day off the shallow reefs of key largo.  I’m fishing tomorrow then out of town for thanksgiving.  If you want to get out fishing next weekend though I’ll be back Friday evening and it’s wide open as of now!

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

Got out today with Gus and his friend Rick who is a local offshore captain of the Sea Horse charter boat.  November fishing in Key Largo is often pretty good especially in the backcountry.  One of the reasons I like it so much is Key Largo is fairly empty this time of year…  September through Christmas, aside from a few holiday weekends, are not too busy and especially this year with Hurricane Irma, so when you get on the water you often have things to yourself.  This was the case today as we fished on a Monday as well to avoid the weekend wanna-bes.  Gus visits his friend Rick in Key largo at least once a year and loves to snook fish, so we headed out to do that.  I had caught some good bait the previous day for inshore fishing key largo, which were pilchards.  Snook go crazy for them, especially this time of year.  We hit several creek mouths and runoffs in the key largo backcountry, and the first few places we stopped all held fish.  The water was just beautiful, some of the best I’d seen since the hurricane, so that is welcome news.  We’d been dealing with a lot of nasty algae water since the storm due to all the dead rotting grass and such, but hopefully that means its clearing up.  The snook were plentiful and we even found a few sea trout.  Trout fishing in the bays of key largo had been a little tougher lately, due to the aforementioned algae water, so these guys were a welcome surprise.  We didn’t kill anything and released all the fish unharmed.  Later on we found a few more snook on the top of the tide, fishing some of the shorelines of key largo, we also got a cool juvenile redfish too.  At the end of the day we found a bunch of smaller tarpon too, however they didn’t want to play with us.  We tried a few different tactics to catch them, including drifting free lined baits, anchoring in the rolling schools, and even trying to chum a little bit with the few baits we had left, but no love from them at all.  We did get a small 50 lb bull shark though which was cool.  Anyways it was a great day I think we landed over 20 snook, a half dozen trout, and a redfish, so great fishing!

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

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

With the warm up we’ve had in Key Largo since the good front at the end of October, things have returned to almost a summer time feel!  There has been good bonefish fishing in Key largo and a fair number of permit whilst doing so.  Stake up fishing on some of the flats has produced up to 8 fish in a session.  Several sessions as mentioned have also been rewarded with the elusive key largo permit.  This style of fishing makes things easy on the angler – you don’t need any experience really.  We put baits out in areas known to be frequented by bonefish and/or permit, and you just sit and wait for them to start screaming off drag!  Don’t worry about blowing your only shot trying to sight fish for these guys if you haven’t done it before.  This fishery exists year round down here, and in the winter months it can be good all throughout the day especially when its colder.  Capt. Richard Stanczyk Sr. had two nights landing 7 bonefish in a row last week, and got a permit one of those nights.  He also had his friend Rich Hastings who landed 4 bonefish and a nice permit as well. And just the other night they got one bonefish fishing with long time friend Andy Newman.  If you are visiting Key Largo and want to give flats fishing a try for bonefish, give me a shout we’ll get you hooked up.

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

Got out with Kyle, Anna, and Bud for a full day in the key largo backcountry.  Water temperatures had dipped down the previous day due to a cold front.  They had warmed slightly today, but still in the low 70s, compared to 80 a week ago.  It was very busy on the water and we saw probably a total of 20 boats in the area that we fished.  Unfortunatley lately there have been a handful of ‘good’ spots where you can catch a number of fish, though many other spots just aren’t as productive now and you can make quite a few stops blanking.  Luckily we got on a good spot early in the morning that another boat actually gave up.  Not sure if they just didn’t know how to fish it properly or what.  But we caught fish right away and ended up with a good catch of redfish, black drum, and some snook.  We got a few more snook and another black drum later throughout the day, but that one stop made our day for sure!  Most the drum came on shrimp, and most the snook were on pilchards.  The water temperature is at that level where it pays to have both, but if it gets colder shrimp will definitely be the ticket.  If you are looking to get out on the water and are vacationing in Key Largo, give me a shout!

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

Got out with Steve and Mario today for a short 4 hour trip.  A nice little key largo half day fishing charter for the boys.  We hit a few of the nearby islands for some dinner.  They planned on doing a ‘hook and cook’ where we catch things like mangrove snapper and I clean them and then the guys brings them to a local restaurant to have them cooked up.  The great thing down here is just about every restaurant offers this service as it’s such a common thing.  And that way you know the fish is fresh!   Anyways we were able to put together a decent catch of snapper for the table.  But we also were rewarded with some juvenile tarpon, a snook, and a few sharks!  The island moat was just crawling with fish it was cool to see!  Since hurricane irma in key largo the fishing has been pretty good.  Parts of the bay have changed for sure, but some of it is definitely for the better.  I think we will have some good winter time fishing which is coming up soon.  Today as a matter of fact we had our first cold front down here and it’s getting in the 60s tonight… Brrrr!  Well not really too cold but for us it is.  Anyways if you are wanting to visit key largo to go fishing, drop me a line and let’s do it!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903

Well Hurricane Irma has come and gone and we are still standing here in the upper keys.  We were fortunate and the Key Largo area really had very minimal damage aside from some areas on the oceanside.  Islamorada fared a little worse but by now they are mostly back together.  A few larger resorts on the ocean side will be closed for a while to rebuild, but for the most part at this point things are back to normal.  I’ve been fishing a handful of times and just wanted to post a report.  The fall is here and the fishing is good!  The hurricane has created a lot of new areas with the fallen debris in the backcountry that should provide us some good snook, redfish, snapper, and other fish holes for years to come!  It’s also moved around a lot of the silty bottom that had ruined some areas so hopefully they will come back alive soon.  The last few days we’ve had very good snook fishing.  There has been plenty of live bait around locally so it’s easy to load the well with pilchards most days and get back to fishing quickly.  We released dozens of snook in the last 4 days I was out it was really good.  There has also been a handful of redfish around in the mix.  We’ve still been getting a few tarpon too with a lot of little guys around, though they are hit and miss as to whether or not they want to bite.  We did find some medium size tarpon the other day and landed them, a 15 lber and a 50 lber.  Let me know if you are looking to come down this fall I have plenty of days available.

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