4/28/16 End of April Islamorada Backcountry Fishing Report

Boy time is flying it's hard to beleive it's almost May and summer time is just around the corner.  It is starting to feel that way as things are heating up and the winds have laid down from the crazy 20-30 mph stuff we and we look to have a nice weekend in store.  The late cool fronts have also slowed down we were still having a lot of wind shifts through early April and that kept us guessing as far as the fishing went.  Tarpon season has been in full swing however it's not been very easy for much of April.  The fish have really been biting good in little windows though many a times it's been tough to get them to respond.  It's not that they aren't around but they have just been very moody.  I myself had done several early morning trips and we had good success with that getting a few bites each trip and landing fish on just about all of them.  The evening fishing has been decent too with sunset being a good time to be out there.  The day time bite has definitely been a little more hit and miss.  Today we found a pack of tarpon though and got them to respond and managed to catch a couple along with a few sharks and some nice sea trout as well.  Capt. Bill Bassett has been getting on the tarpon in the backcountry the last week along with Capt. Skip Nielsen.  Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti and Capt. Gunner Guthrie have been working hard around town and have had success as well.  Capt. Mike Venezia has been catching some tarpon too along with Capt. Jeff Beeler.  Capt. Richard Stanczyk Sr. has had some good fishing he guided his friend Capt. Al Ristori with the star ledger to a 15 lb bonefish as well as multiple tarpon.  This was the biggest bonefish Richard had seen landed in his life that's something to be said for over 40 years of bonefish fishing.  He also got on some snook and tripletail in the backcountry last week.  Anyways things are looking up and May is usually a great month for fishing down here and as always I really love the summer time when the winds are calm and conditions remain relatively the same, fishing can be very good!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk