12/9/18 December Fishing Report for the Backcountry Islamorada

Well we are into December and the year is almost over!  Fishing has been nothing less than stellar in our backcountry waters.  It's truly unbelievable the numbers of redfish we have continued to see.  Days spent targetting them specifically have yielded 50 or more on the regular.  Areas where we have not seen redfish in years are loaded with them, and even some areas where we hadn't really ever seen redfish - hard to beleive!  Not sure if these fish have been pushed south here because of the red tide up the coast or what, but we are happy to have them.  They should provide great angling opportunity for years to come, and they are a common target for us in the winter.  Other than that, snook fishing has been really good as well and of course with the multiple cold fronts we've had, there have been some black drum and sheepshead around too.  I myself a couple days ago had a couple anglers land a big 30 lb black drum which was cool, one of my favorite winter targets are those big drums that we seem to only get on the coldest days.  We also had a lot of big snook and some redfish as well.  Capt. Mike Venezia and Capt. Eric Ehelers also had similar fishing that day with snook, drum, and redfish, and a big drum for Capt. Venezia!  Last week I had Ricky Walker and Paul Young of Scotlands Hooked on Fishing.  We had a ton of redfish and nice snook, several black drum, and 3 juvenile tarpon, plus plenty of trout!  It was an epic day.  A couple days later it slicked off and got warm and a bunch of big tarpon showed up.  They weren't chewing for us, but after a couple patient hours, Ricky landed a big 150 lb tarpon!  Also some goliath grouper and redfish that day as well.  There have been some tripletail in the gulf too as well as the occasional Cobia.  We had cobias a week or so ago too, and Capt. Bill Bassett yesterday had a nice 40 lb cobia.  Capt. Mike Bassett has reported some mackerel in the gulf.  The mackerel bite has not yet been real consistent, we've had to run further than usual likely due to some bad water in the near gulf.  But thankfully we have had plenty of other great options.  Capt. John Johansen has reported great patch reef fishing with some porgy, hogfish, and snapper out there.  Capt. Skip Nielsen had some nice red and gag groupers out there too, and a good day in the backcountry a few days ago with all the usual suspents drum, reds, snook, and trout.  Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti had a very nice 12 lb redfish a few days ago.  Capt. Chris Daly a couple weeks ago had great mackerel action on fly, and a few nice cobia on fly as well, plus big goliath grouper.

For the immediate future, we have a couple more cold fronts coming in and it will be dropping back down into the 50s in the Keys.  I'm licking my lips because this should be great for our backcountry winter time stuff...  Big snook and big drum time!  We have plenty of guides with plenty of openings all this week, including myself, so don't miss out on a great fishing opportunity!  You may have to bundle up but once you get into the backcountry it'll get nice and you should have great fishing. January will likely be a great month for this as well as we are already have much cooler weather than we've had this early in our winter.  Give us a shout to get your fishing trip booked at 305-664-2461!

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