Got out with Adam and his dad Marc today down from Virginia, they had fished with me before. We had a cold front come in the other day but not a dramatic drop in temperature, rather a much slower cool down. It got down into the low 60s last night and will stay that way a few nights before then dropping into the low 50s. Fishing wasn’t very easy out back very muddy and a slight algae looking tinge of yellow to the water. We worked a few of the ‘cold day’ spots pretty hard. We did get a few nice fish though, including a 20 lb drum, a smaller drum, and a couple snook. All firsts for Adam. We saw quite a few crocodiles which was cool as well and got up close and personal with one that showed no fear. After the tide got high we left and tried a spot for redfish but didn’t have any luck there. We then decided to give the gulf a try as the wind had laid out nicely and I figured that’d be more guaranteed action. It took 20 minutes or so but the mackerels started to bite well plus a few bluefish and some blue runners. We kept a few mackerels for dinner for the boys to enjoy. All in all not a bad day the guys were thrilled with what we caught even though I thought it was a little slow – sometimes you get a little spoiled doing this every day! I hope everyone has a Happy New Year, I’ll be back at it again tomorrow hopefully the bite picks up a little more in the backcountry in 2018!
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
