Category: Fishing Reports

Sorry for the lack of updates things have just been extremely busy for me.  Though i’ve been updating my other blogs on the regular just been slacking a little here…   Anyways the tarpon season this year has been very good, much better than last year.  We’ve had a spectacular summer time bite back in the everglades…  This August so far we’ve landed 31 tarpon in just 11 trips, and still a good number of large fish around.  Today we had a banner day and landed 6, most of which were in the 100 lb range!  Even got one that was around 130 or so, and landed a double header of tarpon both were near 100 lbs.  Anyways things are starting to slow down a little and ‘off season’ is right around the corner.  I’d figure I’d just update everyone to let them know there is never an off season for fishing here, just a slow down with business.  Last year actually our best tarpon fishing was in September and October, so you aren’t too late if you want to come catch the silver king.  Give me a shout if you are interested in getting down to fish in key largo, the next few months I’ll have dates available and usually can get something going short notice too.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
@richardstanczyk

January is almost over and we haven’t had much of a winter here fishing in Key Largo Florida!  Thankfully it’s been a very busy month for me as it was a little slower in early December/November than it was in the previous couple years.  Busy season is right around the corner though in mid February.  We’re currently experiencing only our second blast of cold air all winter, though the rest of the week looks like it’ll stay nice and cool.  Overall it’s been a mixed bag fishing… we’ve had some warm weather so there have been the occasional shots at tarpon.  The everglades has had good action mostly with snook, and when its cooler redfish, drum, and sheepshead.  I expect this coming week for that to fire up again nicely!  Early in January after the last cold weather blast, we had a week of very good fishing back there.  We landed a couple ‘big’ black drums in the 30 lb range, and plenty of smaller ones.  Lots of snook in the mix too.  The gulf has been alive as well with spanish mackerel.  This has been the ‘goto’ on a lot of trips, just because it’s been so consistent.  Those fish are great fighters, and you can often catch 20 or more in an hour.  We use them for cut bait too for big things like sharks and yes even tarpon once in a while.  Out front I have not been fishing the patches too much honestly.  We’ve had a lot more southeasterly wind with the warmer weather, and also been dealing with some algae blooms that have worked their way out their lately.  So it just hasn’t been all that great out there.  But February may improve.  Anyways look for good gulf and backcountry fishing in the next month, and possibly the start of an early tarpon season if things warm back up later in the month!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

November is here and so is the cooler weather.  It feels great out right now and has for the last couple weeks, with the daily temperatures often in the high 70s.  Cold weather is finally on the way this weekend and it may dip into the 60s for a bit.  The fall bait run had been in effect for most of October and still a decent bit of bait around, but the tarpon are starting to slow down a little bit as the water temperatures cool.  Snook and redfish fishing has been good though we’ve had some great days fishing in the everglades for them, most often using live pilchards but shrimp work well too especially when it gets colder.  Black drum are making their presence known as well.  In the gulf the spanish mackerel bite has turned on very nicely the last few weeks, and there are some cobia, tripletail, and permit out there to boot.  The further wrecks have held the latter fish, and a nice day is usually better for that fishing as it cuts down on the chop and turbulent water.  Patch reef fishing is also turning on and hogfish, porgies, snapper, and grouper will be finding their way to the dinner plate!  We had some nice porgies last week as well as a few hogfish too.  Winter time is a great time to fish all of the above mentioned species, so gimme a call if you want to get out on the water!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Key Largo Fishing in September has been terrific!  We’ve had a great late run of tarpon this year, and it’s been some of the biggest numbers and best action we’ve had all year.  We had several days with multiple tarpon landed.  Fish were in just about every spot we went to for a week or so, very nice to see!  Just yesterday we got way deep into the everglades for some key largo redfish fishing and got into several nice reds and snook as well.  The redfish fishing has been tough this year with all the water quality issues we’ve been dealing with, but if you go the distance you can find good areas to fish still.  I imagine when things cool off for the winter we will get better fishing for them too which is right around the corner.  In the bays the trout and snapper fishing has been good on the half day trips.  We got lots of table fare the other day on a half day, with our limit of trout fairly easily in a few hours.  October is coming up soon and I’ll be out of town until then, but that is a great time of year for fishing down here in the Keys.  The crowds are gone and the fall bait run usually starts to take effect.  We have all kinds of predator fishing chasing huge schools of mullet, pilchards, sardines, herring – you name it!  It can make for some of the best fishing you may see in your life time, no joke!  Give me a call if you want to get out and wet a line.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

March is rolling right along and the big tarpon have started moving in!  It hasn’t been red hot fishing consistently yet, though the large numbers of fish are moving in both from the gulf and Atlantic sides of the ocean.  The backcountry bays and channels are starting to fill in and off cape sable there are hundreds of fish to be seen ‘free jumping’.  It’s quite a spectacular sight!  The key largo tarpon fishing will get better and better and April – July is typically prime time for the silver king.  I’ll be focusing on that the next several months though there are still plenty of other of fish to catch on occasion as well.  We do day and evening trips for tarpon though most my days are filled I do have some slots available.  We will also likely be having a captain run a 2nd boat for us to take tarpon trips only.  Today we landed 2 big tarpon in the backcountry, one over 100 lbs!  We’ve been getting a handful the last couple weeks, no more than two in a day, but it’s been worth it to put the time in.  Elsewhere there have been some tripletails out in the gulf, lots of trout and snapper in the bay, and a few hogfish, porgy, grouper, etc… on the patch reefs.  It’s game on right now and the next several months are a great time to be fishing in key largo!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

January is moving right along and we’ve finally gotten some legitimate ‘cold weather’ for the Florida Keys.  You may laugh at what we call cold but for us it is chilly!  The temperatures finally dipped into the low 60s several times now and looks like more chilly days are on the way next week.  There has been a lot of cloud cover, wind, and scattered rain to go with it which is very unusual for us – normally the cold winter air is super dry.  However ‘el nino’ is definitely affecting us here on the southeast coast of the US too believe it or not.  The fishing has really lit up though and the usual winter time specimens that love the colder weather have been abundant.  The last couple weeks I’ve ventured into the everglades quite a few times, making the 30 to 40 mile run to the mainland creeks and canals.  It’s been a long run but well worth it.  Action has been steady most days with a few banner days of landing 30 to 40 fish!  Fishing slow on the bottom with jigs on shrimp is the ticket, as when the water temps dip below 70 the fish don’t want to work hard for a meal.  We’ve had quite a few large size snook and big black drums, with plenty of smaller ones mixed in too.  The redfish have shown up a bit too and some sheepshead are in the mix as well.  The other day we had drums up to 25 lbs, and some snook in the 10 to 15 lb range!  Other than that there has been a good mackerel bite out in the gulf with the spanish feeding on fast moving shrimp jigged on light wire.  The patch reefs have been good on the ocean side for snapper, grouper, porgy, and hogfish.  January is a great time to fish and the bugs are not too bad on the cold days in the ‘glades so it is a perfect time for that.  Give me a shout if you are in the area.  If things warm up by February the big tarpon will be showing up soon after that and we usually start catching a few as early as the first week of February!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Sorry haven’t been keeping up with the blogging much the last couple months.  Was out of town a good bit and fished a little here and there.  Though overall our off season was a little slower than the last couple years but still busy enough.  Anyways the last couple weeks things have picked up for me with business and of course with christmas right around the corner the week after that is always super busy.  So whats up with the fishing well we have had an extremely warm fall/winter so far.  Like much of the east coast.  It’s only dropped down to maybe the high 60s for a couple nights and the rest of the time it’s been warm, pretty windy, with a fair bit of rain mixed in.  The ‘el nino’ is to blame so they say.  Fishing luckily has been fairly good we did have a slower time in November though finally some of the normal winter time specimens have shown up.  Mackerel fishing the last couple weeks has gotten very good.  We also found some tripletail out there a few days as well when it was calmer – that was very fun fishing!  We’ve been getting a good mix of fish on the patch reefs including porgy, hogfish, snapper, grouper, and the occasional permit.  There have even been a few tarpon around in the backcountry still, they don’t always bite but we’ve gotten lucky a few days.  Snook are prevalent with a few redfish, drum, and sheepshead mixed in.  Though with the luck of cold weather the drum fishing hasn’t been red hot.  Bait has been up and down there has been times its good and consistent and other times it’s been tough to find.  We haven’t had the big schools of pilchards on the oceanside shorelines like normal this time of year.  But there has been enough to catch most of the time for a days fishing.  Anyways if you are looking to get out on the water in January let me know, that is usually a great month for doing the winter time stuff here in Key Largo fishing.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

August is almost over and it’s finally getting time for many fishing guides down here to relax a little bit.  I’ve been pretty busy still though September is always a slower month for business historically.  Fishing can still be really good though and with no crowds sometimes you have the entire florida bay and everglades national park seemingly to yourself.  This means you can fish just about any spot you want to, without worrying someone else is going to beat you there, or have already fished it out!  Sometimes this can make a huge difference in your fishing day.  As of late I’ve still been tarpon fishing a lot, almost every trip, and still getting out 5 or 6 days a week – pretty unbelievable for august.  The fishing has been overall good too, we’ve been running a fair distance into the everglaedes though so usually a 3/4 or full day has been ideal.  Today we did it on a half day and were able to land 3 out of 4 tarpon, a couple big sharks (lemon and blacktip), and a couple sting rays.  That is insane fishing for literally just 2 hours of actual ‘fishing time’ when you count the 2 hours of running time!  It’s not like that every day but just about every day has yielded some tarpon action.  A few days were slower with only 1 or 2 bites, but we did land 6 tarpon one day a couple weeks ago.  Other than that I haven’t been doing much else though there has been some good action fishing in the bays for mangrove snapper, with a handful of trout, ladyfish, and jacks mixed in.  Snook fishing can still be decent on the shorelines and creeks with live pinfish or pilchards, though with the heat and the handful of ‘no wind’ days sometimes it gets to be a little too much.  On the right days when you can fish the more open water shoreline areas with a light breeze it can be fun though, and there are some snook around.  I haven’t been doing it but the gulf is also a possibility this time of year, with lobster traps back in the water tripletail have something to hold on to and permit can be out on the deeper gulf wrecks.  Anyways I have a handful of days booked in September and will be going on vacation myself for part of it.  If you are looking to get out on the water don’t be afraid to ask, if I can’t take you I’ll point you in the right direction!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Well we are rolling right on through April here in Key Largo and the fishing has been stellar.  April is typically thought of as ‘prime time’ for bait fishing big tarpon in the Keys.  Live mullet is my bait of choice and is a very exciting way to fish for the silver king.  The last month there has been a good amount of bait around, plus plenty of hungry fish to feed them too.  Most my trips I fish further down the Keys around the many bridges that run between key largo and key west.  We’ve been catching tarpon just about every day this month.  Some days we’ve landed as many as 6 in a trip which is truly incredible.  Fishing should continue to stay hot through May.  We had a little bit of a late start this year since February was much colder than the previous couple of years.  My thinking is that this should lead to better fishing come late May and June when we often times can suffer from a lack of fish around, or just many that are seemingly tough to catch since they’ve all been to the rodeo once or twice at that point.  Anyways if your fishing in key largo and looking to go after the ultimate game fish, tarpon fishing is probably something you don’t want to pass up.  We do full day, morning, and evening trips for these bad boys and all trips can be very productive.  The summer time can be a great time too.  I am often running back into the everglades that time of year and doing the early morning thing.  Later in the day we often fish for things like snook, redfish, trout, snappers, sharks, and more.  Drop me a line and let’s talk about your next key largo fishing charter!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk 

We’re off to a good start here in March fishing in Key Largo.  Tarpon are showing up everywhere and the fishing has been good.  We’ve caught tarpon every day the last 5 days or so.  They are starting to bite well on live bait too.  Mullet are thick and the big balls of spring should be showing up anytime.  You can catch 50 baits in a throw off these huge schools, and then it’s time to CRUSH the tarpon!  I’m booked up heavily the next few months, though we will be running a second boat for tarpon trips during the evenings.  We have a very hard working young offshore captain who is going to be running them.  We’ll keep him in the loop so you’ll be on the fish!  February we had some late cold weather, so it’s just not starting to be consistently warm which is what tarpon love.  It should give us very good fishing later in the season too, as we did not have the super early start we had the last few years with tarpon showing up during the first week of February.  Anyways if your looking to get out on the water and catch that big silver king, drop me a line.  We’ll get you hooked up!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk