1/21/16 January Backcountry Fishing in Islamorada

Well winter continues to hit us, and hit us hard!  We've had several solid cold fronts now and look to be getting another one this weekend.  Temperatures in the everglades waters have dropped down to the mid 50s on some days!  However luckily it has not really slowed the fishing down too much, if you are in the right areas and fishing for the right things.  The deeper channels, moats, and canals have been very good as of late.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk reported epic fishing for snook, redfish, and black drum the last several days he was back there.  Capt. Perry Scuderi had a great day today back there, as did Capt. Jeff Beeler.  Capt. Bill Bassett also reported great fishing even during the last front several days ago, with it blowing 30 mph out of the northwest.  Capt. Chris Daly also had a great day yesterday with snook and drum.  I have not heard any reported from the gulf as it has been rough many days so boats especially the smaller skiffs have not been out there for the mackerels, though I imagine during the times when the temperatures creep back up near 70 it should be pretty good.  The patch reefs have been very good overall too.  Once the winds have laid down and the water has cleared up the porgies and hogfish have been biting good, otherwise there has been plenty of snapper action with a variety of other things mixed in.  Capt. Skip Nielsen had a great day out there catching quite a few black grouper, even some on fly.  Look for things to get a little nasty this weekend but hopefully still fishable, but after things calm down the backcountry should light up again as early as next week.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk