1/31/15 End of January Islamorada Backcountry Fishing Report

February starts tomorrow and right now it feels like winter down here in the Keys.  The last week we had the tail end of the winter weather from up north chill us down.  We had several nights that got into the 50s, plus some wind to boot.  Though fishing hasn't cooled down it has stayed pretty good.  The patch fishing has been phenomenal with a good mixed bag out there.  Today Capt. Rick Stanczyk had great fishing with a limit of nice hogfish, lots of porgy, snapper, grouper, and more.  We've been seeing a few permit out there too, the other day we saw a school of 50+ at the end of our trip, but were not able to get any bites out of them.  Capt. Skip Nielsen and Capt. John Johansen both landed a permit this week though with their anglers.  Capt. Skip also has Cliff and Cathy Fox of Fox Tackle.  Cathy caught a nice permit, plus they had action with grouper and other species out front.  They also each landed nice snook in the backcountry plus some redfish in the creeks.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk yesterday had a handful of black drum, plus two whopper snook of 10 and 12 lbs.  The deeper everglades canal fishing hasn't been red hot as far as numbers of fish, but there have been some big quality fish if you put your time in.  Capt. Jeff Beeler had some nice black drum the other day too, and Capt. Bill Bassett had a mix of redfish, snook, a tripletail, and a few others as well.  There has been some trout in the channel run-offs to give a bit more action on these trips as well as some stuff for dinner if your looking for that.  Capt. Jim Willcox had some black drum the other day as well, he also had a monster 40 lber last week too one of the biggest we've seen.  Spanish mackerel fishing has been consistent as it has for most the winter.  Capt. Rick had Steve Holsinger out last week for the macks and sharks it was good fishing, they also had a good mixed bag on the patches and finished up with a few barracudas they caught on big pilchards - lots of fun!  Further out in the gulf on the nicer days triple tail fishing is a good idea and there can be some cobias on the structure too.  Looks like things should slowly warm up this next week, winds look to be swinging more east and even south tomorrow.  Tarpon fishing should start being a regularlity especially if the weather is warm, February can be good fishing for tarpon with the right conditions and the last few years it has been for the most part.  Give us a call and let's get you out on the water.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk