10/4/16 October Islamorada Backcountry Fishing Report

October is here and so far the fall fishing is still very good overall.  Hurricane Matthew is currently looming out in the Atlantic affecting the islands, but we appear to be out of the 'cone' and may experience some stronger than normal wind and rain, but the chances of hurricane-force winds are very minimal.  Looks like we will get most of the weather the next couple of days.  I myself have been tarpon fishing mostly still and fishe the last three days.  It was epic fishing, again some of the best fishing I had all year.  The fish have stayed put in the same relative aras for a while now and for the most part have been happy and feeding.  Anyways we landed multiple tarpon every day and I had some very happy anglers!  Yesterday we were finished with the tarpon by 10 AM and then caught a few nice snook, a nice triple tail, and then even jumped a big tarpon on the light tackle while throwing arificials for trout!  Capt. Mike Bassett had some decent fishing in the everglades the other day he said he caught some nice pilchards and caught several snook and a handful of decent redfish.  Capt. Jim Willcox reported some big snapprs and nice trout and various other things out in the bays fishing on a half day trip.  Capt. John Johnansen had some tarpon the last week as well, plus some big sharks and a nice snook the other day on some cut bait.  Capt. Perry Scuderi also had some tarpon and a big bull shark the other day as well.  Unfortunately that is about all I got only a handful of guides have been fishing here and there as it is still our off season.  But as you can tell that does not mean fishing isn't good - far from it October can be one of the best times of year for fishing down here!  The next couple of days may be a wash, but I think by the weekend things will be much better.  We should start getting the fall bait migration going on here soon, and that usually brings loads of predator fish with it.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk