12/29/16 Late December Backcountry Fishin' Report

Well here is the last report for the backcountry for the year likely!  Fishing has been good I've been out the last few days and was out of town for christmas to enjoy some time with the wifes family.  Before I left for the holidays on the 21st we had two real good days, with redfish, snook, black drum, and tarpon both days!  Also a nice cobia on one of those days as well.  It's been warm so there has still been a few tarpon around though they aren't happy ever day, but the possibility is there!  Weather is nice since I got back though with it still being very warm and slightly breezy.  Today the wind really dropped off though but we have a cold front coming in tonight to chill it down for a couple days anyways.  The last two days were pretty special we caught a good handful of nice mackerel both days, some pompano in the mix, big jack crevelles, and even some look-downs which are a funny but very pretty looking fish!  Cobias were about on the wrecks we didn't get them to bite yesterday (it was hard getting through the little fish), but today we landed several including a nice 20 lber!  We spent both afternoons catching large stuff including big blacktip sharks, bull sharks, goliath grouper, mud marlin, and more.  The cape was very buggy today we tried a couple spots for snook/reds for a minute, but the bugs drove us out of there pretty quickly.  Also got a nice triple tail today and saw a few yesterday as well.  Yesterday Capt. Mike Venezia had a nice tiger shark, mud marlin, and some mackerel and ladyfish as well.  Today he reported good patch reef fishing with hogfish, porgies, and more.  Capt. Bill Bassett reported lane snappers and mackerels in the gulf yesterday as well as a mud marlin in the chanenls with some sharks.  Capt. Gunner Guthrie reported a good bite on the pathces this morning as well with hogfish, porgies, snappers, and more.  Capt. Mike Bassett yesterday had some mackerel, jacks, and a nice cobia.  Capt. Mike Walter reported some mackerels, bluefish, and pompano both in the morning and afternoons the last couple of days.  All in all it's been a very busy week after xmas like usual, should continue through New Years.  January things usually slow down a bit as we wait for 'season' to kick back up in mid february, so it can be a great time to go fishing and beat the crowds!  If we get some cold weather look for the backcountry to light up with snook, redfish, drum, and more.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk