Key Largo Fishing Report

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

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