1/27/18 Late January backcountry fishing report

January is almost over and an early spring could be around the corner.  Hard to say though but often times Febraury warms up and we start to get an early tarpon migration.  It's been fairly cold for most of this month, not unusual, but a lot of very cold weather the likes of which we havne't seen since 2010.  Luckily it didn't stay cold throughout though and caused no major fish kills here.  Fishing has been good we've been getting a lot of drum, snook, trout, and a few redfish out back.  I had a few epic days earlier in the week when it was very calm, but water still cold being post frontal.  We had two days in a row catching monster snook in the 15-20 lb range, with one fish close to 25 lbs!  It was super exciting and not something we get to see every day here, so always appreciate days like that.  We also had some nice black drums and other fish mixed in.  Wednesday we had some decent mackerel fishing in the gulf, and my angler Jim got a nice big tarpon of 85 lbs or so, and jumped one other one off too!  Plus plenty of shark action it was like a spring day for sure even though the water was still on the chilly side.  Those calm, warming days you never know what will happen though they are often very good.  The last few days though it's gotten crazy windy again.  I cancelled the previous days, but today I got out with it blowing 35 out of the east.  We had very good fishing though, slow to start but the last hour of the day was red hot.  We had a few black drums and trout early on and had a big tarpon on for a second.  The last hour though we had snook on every cast and jumped another small tarpon.  Just incredible.  Not any big boys today but mostly little guys, with a few in the 4 to 6 lb range.  Yesterday Capt. Jim Willcox and Capt. Ted Wilson had a slow pick of snook and drums in the backcountry despite the 35 mph winds that day.  Capt. Bill Bassett and Capt. Skip Nielsen have reported very good fishing deep into the everglades where many do not venture.  Capt. John Johansen had some black drums out in the gulf on Thursday.  Capt. Mike Venezia had some snook, drum, trout, and snapper action in the backcountry several days ago before the crazy winds, as did Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti.  Looks to be windy tomorrow, nicer monday, then kicking up again for a few days before getting nicer again by friday.  Up and down with the winds, typical for that transitional time between cold and warm here in the Florida Keys.  I'll be out of town myself skiing so hopefully there will be a few fish to catch when I get back.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing