Well we got out just before this last front came in… one of the coldest we’ve had in over a decade! It got to 45 degrees in Islamorada, brrrrrrrr. I got out with my dad and friend Ron Modra for a fun day riding in the leading edge of this cold front. Didn’t really know what to expect… Often with my dad we’ve gone ‘trophy hunting’ as we’d put a lot of time in specifically targetting larger snook, redfish, and drum and had good success the last few years with that. However this last year and couple months in particular it hadn’t been very good for us, and usually the winter time after cold fronts was always the best time. So we didn’t know what to expect but on this day several areas we fish were loaded with cobia! Very interesting and we ended up catching a half dozen or so, and lost a few others (1 got eaten by a shark!). A couple fish were in the 35 to 45 lb range. Just amazing to see and awesome to do on light tackle as well. We got the biggest one after quite a the battle he went around 2 lobster pot buoys, almost got eaten by a shark, and then we were able to get him in a big landing net. Now this front we’re experiencing now I’m sure will put an end to this, but when it warms back up hopefully a few of these ‘brown bombers’ will be hanging around in the near gulf. February is fairly booked up for me but I’ll be opening days for March probably this week, so check your emails I’ll be sending out that blast email to those on my mailing list who want to book dates.
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina
