We've been having a bit more cool weather in the later winter here in Islamorada, after a warmspell for several weeks around christmas and early january. This has led to much more of the traditional winter time fishing in our area. We've been having great success in the gulf and bays with spanish mackerel. This has been hot action most days, and even the slow days are still yielding a decent amount of fish. Mixed in are snapper, ladyfish, bluefish, and the occasional pompano. Big blacktip sharks are readily found too, fishing some of that fresh mackerel on the bottom with a big rod! Out on the patch reefs, the hogfish and porgies have been lots of fun and great tablefare. It's been a fantastic year with the hogfish numbers, more than I've ever remember hearing! We've had several days with our limit of them, and most guides I've talked to have had a day or two themselves catching high double digit numbers of them. In the everglades, the drum and snook fishing has been fair. The deeper creeks have had some black drum and the action is not always red hot, but some of them have been big lunkers of 20, 30, and even a 40 lber being caught that I heard of. You often have to be patient, and it is a lot more casting than catching, but the fish are quality and the reward is worth the effort. Snook have been fair and same thing, a good number of larger fish that are holed up for the winter on the oyster bars and creek mouths. Redfish and sheepshead have been mixed in as well. Shrimp is the bait of choice and that's worked well most days. We've had a handful of tripletail in the gulf too, with cobia mixed in on the wrecks. February is here now, and as soon as things warm up i'm sure the tarpon will be starting to show up. Spring time is already looking very busy though there are still some excellent guides that have days or evenings avialable to catch the big silver king.
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
rick@seethefloridakeys.net
Islamorada Florida Fishing Charters with Capt. Rick Stanczyk
