November 2018

Well we had a good hard cold front the last couple days.  Today was the warming trend… the water was still cold but the wind swung east throughout the day and lost the bite of cold.  We had a banner day catching nice snook and redfish, but in the late morning it calmed down and really warmed up.  A few tarpon started to roll and we started pitching shrimp to them.  We caught 3 of them, two little guys in the 15 lb range, and one probably around 20 lbs to top off the day!  The last one we caught while fighting two redfish as well which made for a nice triple header!  It’s very hit or miss with tarpon right now, but throughout the winter you can catch small guys like these on shrimp occasionally.  I usually don’t book charters specifically for that, but rather when we are fishing spots for snook or redfish and they are around, you can work your bait differently and sometimes entice a strike.  If it gets warm and calm though, the big boys can show up and it can be game on.  But the winter time fishing so far for snook, drum, and redfish has been very stellar.  Check out my other website www.fishingislamorada.com for those daily reports.  3 for 3

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

Got out with Nolan, Shane, and Olivia today for a full day trip.  Nolan runs some charters up in the NC area and works as a sales rep for a rod company up there.  He wanted to try one of his rods for tarpon.  I told him tarpon fishing can be very hit and miss this time of year, but we had decent conditions to try it.  I was able to sneak out yesterday morning for an hour to catch bait too, so I got us some mullet and pilchards.  I definitely wanted to have some ammo and give it a 110% shot which we did!  We left early and headed into the backcountry.  We found a lot of tarpon busting off the shorelines, eating various glass minnows and finger mullets.  We could not get them to hit our baits too.  Not sure if it was the full moon last night, or cooler water temperatures.  They were active, but just not for the hook baits.  We fished the last hour of falling tide, and then tried again when it started in, but no love.  We bailed on that and then had to spend a good bit of time getting on a bite of snook and redfish.  But we did manage too and had very good fishing in one spot for reds and a good solid handful of snook.  We gave it some extra time at the end of the day as it slicked out nice and checked a few other channels for tarpon.  Didn’t see much but we did come across a few rolling in one channel at the very end.  We gave it another 20 minutes, but did not get a response out of them either.  Anyways there are still some around, but as stated it can be very hit and miss this time of year.  The cooler water temperatures some times make them not feed as actively, and when you are in the thick of a bait run some times those fish just don’t want to hit a hook bait when there are so many other options.  But thankfully right now the snooks and reds are thick and provide a good alternative.  If anyone wants to get out fishing though let me know, plenty of open days in December and the other backcountry fishing should remain solid.  0 for 0

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

Well yesterday we had some slick calm weather, and today the wind kicked up in the morning but got slick calm later in the day.  Tarpon showed up in some spots!  We weren’t really fishing for them but did see a good number while we were hitting some snook in the creeks.  We ended up catching one in here on a jig and pilchard!  Snook fishing was really good too.  Later in the day we found some tarpon up in the skinny water in an area where we were catching some snook and redfish.  I got the rods rigged for tarpon.  We floated some shrimp back to them and they were happy!  We ended up catching a couple more, and jumped off two others.  Yes even in November we still can catch tarpon here in Islamorada, and when it gets slick calm like this, it can be just as good as the best times of year.  I think Friday I have some customers looking to catch some tarpon, so hopefully they’ll stick around.  Otherwise I have plenty of openings in early December, if it stays fairly warm like this it can be worth a shot.  But the snook and redfish fishing has been stellar so it’s hard to pass that up.  Regardless, if you want to go fishing give me a shout!  3 for 5

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