Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished Howard and Mike today for a full day in the backcountry off of Islamorada, Florida Keys. We had incoming tide most of the day, so we ran and fished the edge of the gulf of mexico to fish for spanish mackerel. The mackerel bite was great! We stopped at some sunken debris down off long key. Caught probably 2 dozen, and a dozen or so nice mangrove snappers. After this we ran further out in the the gulf, and hit a couple more spots in hops of fishing for cobia or maybe getting a nice goliath grouper or shark. Unfortunately the water was still a little chilly, in the low 60s, so we didn't have much luck with anything except some small jacks. We ran back into the park around 11:30 and caught the last of the in tide in a little runoff and caught some nice trout and ladyfish! When that dried up, we moved to another runoff a couple miles away, and caught the beginning of the falling tide. Some more trout and ladyfish, and we also caught half a dozen pompanos which was a nice surprise! No redfish, and had to cut our trip a little short before the tide got low enough for them to stack up, but great action and variety fishing the florida everglades! We also fished the day before with my brother, Capt. Nick Stanczyk. We caught and released 2 sailfish, and 10 nice barracudas! Very exciting on light tackle! Caught a few cero mackerels inside in some dirty water off the shallow reefs, and then looked for some cobias and found a little school. Caught 3 cobias off it up to 40 lbs to finish that day of florida keys fishing!
Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903
http://www.budnmarys.com
rick@seethefloridakeys.net