12/17/13 December patch reef fishing and backcountry report

December has been fairly warm though we had a slight drop in temperature here lately.  Yesterday the patch reef fishing was pretty good for Capt. John Johansen and Capt. Rick Stanczyk.  Capt. John reported a good bite of spanish mackerel and some big sharks up to 100 lbs nearby in the bay.  His young anglers also got a nice gag grouper!  Capt. Rick was able to get further out on the oceanside though it was pretty rough for any smaller skiffs.  They limited out on mangrove snappers, and also got some yellowtail, mutton snapper, a few groupers, and 1 cero meackerel.  Pilchards were great baits for the juvenile muttons and groupers as well as larger mangroves.  Today the wind was still kicking out of the north though not as hard as it was suppose to.  Capt. Rick was fun fishing with his father Richard Sr., Steven Byrd, and Ray Long.  They went deep into the everglades fishing cape sable.  The water was super low with the north wind and bottom of the tide.  It took a while to find fish as they idled up several creeks trying runoffs and tree limbs.  Finally a spot they found recently back there later on the incoming tide had lots of redfish.  Once there it was double header, triple header, double header, etc... for a while!  They caught over 2 dozen and several nice size ones.  Shrimp was working great on jigs though several larger fish ate pilchards.  Later they tried snook fishing several spots on the shorelines and creek mouths on the higher water, though there were not many snook around.  They did catch 3 however including this nice one here which screamed some drag.  They also got a black drum before leaving.  Capt. Vinny Biondoletti had some nice trout late this afternoon as did Clyde Upchurch.  It is nice to see some nice size trout showing up in the backcountry as that is a winter time favorite here in Islamorada!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk