12/9/15 Mid December Backcountry Fishing Report

December is rolling by and we are still having some warm weather patterns in South Florida.  The last week we had torrential rain which we lost a few fishing days too.  The others have been fishable though windy and patchier rain.  But the El Nino is keeping things warm, windy, and wet so far.  We have yet to have a good cold front so many of the typical winter options have not been consistent yet.  Before the crazy rain days Capt. Jim Willcox had some decent fishing way in the everglades.  They were able to catch some quality fish while not lots of numbers including some nice size snook, redfish, and black drum.  He reported many of the fish are still way up super shallow due to the warm weather, not yet in the typical 'winter time holes.'  Capt. Bill Bassett, Capt. Mike Bassett Capt. Rick Stanczyk reported decent mackerel action in the gulf last week.  Not a red hot bite but if you worked at it you can put together a catch in the double digits.  Capt. Bill also got a few on fly with one anglers, and a bonefish on bait yesterday too.  Capt. Rick repoted some nice blacktip sharks in the channels too.  The other day Capt. Skip Nielsen had Rick Pepper out in the backcountry.  Fishing wasn't easy but he happened upon a good school of juvenile 'razor belly' pilchards and found the snook and reds close by.  They got a few reds on fly as well.  The fish were tough to find especially with the previous days of hard rain changing the salinity of the water so things have been tough to figure ou day by day.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk reported 3 nice size snook that day and struggled to find much else but finished the day with a few trout, jacks, and ladyfish.  Today Capt. Bill Bassett reported a good bite out on the patch reefs.  Lots of porgy, bar jacks, a few cero mackerel and hogfish.  It was gorgeous today and looks to remain that way through the weekend.  Not cold but at least it is pretty out!  Things will be getting very busy around christmas but there are plenty of guides available to go fishing if you are here before then.  Give us a call at 305-664-2461 to book something!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk