2/12/17 February backcountry fishing report

February fishing in Islamorada has been marked by fairly warm weather so far and looks to be an early start to our spring time fishing.  We've had a few chillier days with some minor fronts that didn't turn out to be much, but several very warm ones as well.  Tarpon have started to show up and we had some successful days targeting them in the backcountry of the Florida Keys.  Capt. John Johansen, Capt. Bill Bassett, and myself had some good luck catching them last week.  Howard fishing with me landed large tarpon, 120 and 150 lbs!  Water temperatures creeped up into the mid and high 70s, which is the bottom range of when we expect to have a decent shot at catching them.  It wasn't always red hot fishing islamorada tarpon fishing, but if you put time in you could get a shot or two, and there were plenty of sharks as well as some big 'mud marlin' to pull on as well.  Out in the gulf the spanish mackerel fishing has been pretty consistent still as well.  The days with wind have been much more productive out there, the few flat calm days fishing for them was a little tougher.  Capt. Perry Scuderi and Capt. Mike Bassett both reported some quality action out there with the spanish mackerel, and I've been getting out there most days with my little larger boat which is nice when its windy.  Capt. Mike also reported some large sharks and goliath grouper yesterday for his client.  We also got a couple big goliaths and 'mud marlin' I had some good luck catching nice mangrove snappers around the islands too with cutbait and pilchards.  Some of the larger snappers have been around if you can get up tight to the mangroves which they like to hide under.  Capt. Mike Bassett had a very large specimen one day too.  A few days ago when it was very windy we had incredibly low tides in the backcountry, some of the lowest I'd ever seen!  Several boats had trouble even getting into the east cape canal area.  I had decent fishing with Howard and Mike, we caught some live pilchards and were able to catch half a dozen snook, and lost probably another half dozen, so enough to keep us entertained on a very windy day - we then caught our snappers for dinner afterwards.  Earlier this month I had Dan in the backcountry and we caught redfish, drum, and snook... and Bill Levore caught some very nice snook with me the day after along with mangrove snappers.  and I had Capt. Jim Willcox and Capt. Ted Wilson also had some snook action back there as well.  Capt. Tim Arce had some good action on the patches today and got a nice permit to start the day!  Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti reported some good mackerel fishing and a cobia last week, and Capt. Jim Willcox also got a nice cobia a few days ago too.  Loosk like this week we will have another minor front hitting us later in the week, don't think it'll get very cold but may slow the tarpon down again.  Hopefully though the next few days it'll warm up enough where we have a some shots at them in the meantime.  Soon enough it'll be tarpon on a daily basis though, I know I'm ready for that.  Give us a call if you want to get in on the action, 305-664-2461.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Mackerel on fly for Dan!

Nice redfish for Dan earlier this month.

Bill Levore showing off a very nice snook earlier this month.

Big bull shark for Chase.

Nice cobia for Capt. Willcox's angler.

Dave and Mike show off a pair of snook.

Dan got a big tarpon on this day too, gorgeous weather!

Howard fight one of two large tarpon he caught, this one 150 lbs!

Nice snook for Mike on this very windy day with super low tides.

Goliath grouper out of the muddy waters in the everglades.

Pretty patch reef parrotfish!  Say that 3 times really fast...

Nice permit for Capt. Time Arce angler this morning.

Monster mangrove snapper with Capt. Mike Bassett

Sawfish a.k.a mud marlin

Great shot thanks Jason Stemple of Capt. Bill Bassett's angler fighting a tarpon!