Key Largo Fishing Report

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

Key Largo February Backcountry Fishing is officially beginning now.  For the last month we’ve had traditional winter time fishing going on for the most part.  The weather has been chilly though we haven’t had much severe cold, only a handful of nights in the 50s.  Spanish mackerel have been the name of the game if you want consistent action.  The bite in the near gulf has been hot most days, and even the slower days are still yielding a dozen fish in an hour or so of fishing.  We’ve had most of our action just fishing shrimp on jig heads, blind casting in chum slicks.  Now further back near the mainland in the everglades of key largo we’ve had action with drum and snook.  This hasn’t been red hot and has been a little tougher overall this year than most winters.  Though there have been some nice size fish back there especially with the black drum and snook.  You don’t always have constant drag pulling action, but can have shots at a handful of nice fish and a few trophy ones at that.  The other day we had a couple nice snook over 10 lbs, and a little over a week ago we got a black drum about 25 lbs!  This too is mostly on shrimp, with the water temperatures below 70 most days that is the bait of choice.  This is nice as you don’t have to worry about spending time catching and hunting for other baitfish.  The patch reefs have been a good bet too for catching tablefare and keeping the rods bent.  We were able to get our limit of hogfish this saturday, 10 keepers which is fantastic fishing in just a half day trip.  Plenty of porgy as well as a mix of snapper and grouper are common too.  A key largo reef fishing trip especially on the closer in ‘patch reefs’ is productive all the way through the spring.  Coming up we are getting very close to prime season for tarpon fishing key largo.  Once the water temperatures stabilize at 75 degrees or so I will be doing that on the majority of my charters, along with other things too in the early spring.  If your looking to get out on the water for a big silver king of a lifetime, or any other fish, give me a call.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903

It’s been extremely warm here and that’s lead to some ‘spring time style’ fishing in key largo in january.  We’ve been putting the big rods out for things like sharks, sawfish, tarpon, and cobia.  The last several trips we landed big tarpon, yesterday we boated 2.  I don’t think it will last forever as we have another cold front bearing down on us tomorrow night.  But it’s been fun for the last couple weeks.  Other than that, I’ve been fishing the gulf of mexico a lot.  With the high southeasterly winds the backcountry has been fairly mudded up and with the higher water temps, most the usual winter time areas are much more of a pick of fish rather than finding good numbers where you can sit and mash ’em. Though a few days a couple weeks ago we did boat a few good snook and reds the couple days we fished back there. Though we’ve been hanging the chum bag in the gulf much more lately and getting lots of spanish mackerel, big ladyfish, snapper, trout, jacks, and occasional pompano.  Also on the ocean side on the calmer days the patch reefs have still been alive with porgy, hogfish, snapper, and grouper.  After the next front I’m sure the backcountry redfish, black drum, snook, and sheepshead fishing should get a little more consistent.  The wind should swing north and drop the water temperature a bit.  Though February is right around the corner and that is typically when I start tarpon fishing a lot, the last couple years it’s been worth a try most days, and on the right day it can be dang good fishing!  Gimme a call and let’s get you out in the water for a key largo fishing charter.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Well it’s down right chilly here in Key Largo the last few days, but fishing has been red hot!  Today we had a gorgeous day as a front rolled through a few days ago but the wind laid down still today.  It was perfect weather to hit the gulf.  We had the spanish mackerels chummed up somethin’ fierce.  After about a half hour, any jig that hit the water had one of these little speedsters on the end.  It was great fun and we probably landed close to 40 fish by 10:00 AM.  After that we switched gears and decided to check out some spots in the ‘glades, everglades that is.  We ran to flamingo and fished some good cool weather spots with big live shrimp.  Pretty soon it was game on again, we caught about 20 snook in an hour and a handful of redfish and sheepshead too.  The snook were not giants but we did get a couple slot size fish in the 30″ range.  The water back there was in the high 60’s, brrr!  Now it was a little after noon time and we went looking for more redfish on the bottom of the tide.  Unfortunately it was not happening for us we hit a few channel run-offs and sandy potholes where the drum often school up in the winter when it’s cold, but just not much doing.  We did bend the rod with a few jacks and snappers there though.  But it didn’t matter we had a stellar day anyways .  The rest of december is getting booked up quick, and xmas week is right around the corner and that traditionally kicks off our season!  January is great fishing here in Key Largo too so if your thinking of getting out of the snow, I’ll betcha it’s warmer here and better fishing then where you are sitting!  Gimme a call lets get you out on the water.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk