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2/22/17 February Backcountry Fishing Report in Islamorada

 | By Seamus on 2/22/2017 11:06:28 AM | Views (972)

The warm weather trend has continued throughout most of February and it's continued to feel like an early spring here.  Today we had kind of a nasty day with heavy rain and wind, though we probably needed the rain, but it was a good day for me to have off.  The last week or so the majority of my trips have been with 3 people, and so ive been sticking to the same routine most days (more open water fishing) and we've been having good luck.  That has revolved around fishing for big things - tarpon, sharks, and the occasional 'mud marlin'.  Since the water temps have stayed in the mid 70s, most those fish have been fairly active every day.  I think only one day did we not get a tarpon bite, though we had plenty of them around the boat, just the fishing window we caught there was no tide and it was slick calm, and they were in a finicky mood.  Most of the other days it hasn't been red hot fishing but if you put your time in, you could get a bite or two out of the silver king and we landed at least one most days.  Sharks were very active too mostly blacktips, and we caught some big 'mud marlin' while doing that too.  Out in the gulf the mackerel fishing has still been pretty good.  On windier days it's been a better bite, but even when slick calm we've been able to pick away at them.  A few days ago we also found a lot of tripletail which was nice to see because previous to that there had only been a handful around it seemed.  We caught one that was 12.5 lbs, one of the biggest I've caught in a long time.  We caught a few snappers around some of the islands on a few trips, and some nice lane snappers out on the ocean side patches one trip too, and that's been about it.  I'll likely be focusing on tarpon fishing mostly from here on through the summer, barring any extreme late cold fronts.  A few days ago Capt. Chris Daly had a nice 40 lb cobia fishing in the backcountry/gulf.  Capt. Jim Willcox picked away at a few redfish, trout, and other things deep in the everglades with Doug Bentz and co, and also reported some monster bull sharks in the gulf a few days ealier.  Capt. Mike Venezia caught a big 300 lb goliath grouper in the gulf a few days ago, and it had coughed up a dead lionfish and a dead cormorant!  Last week he also reported a decent bite of snook and a few redfish/drum in the everglades.  Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti reported a few snook and a nice juvenile tarpon in the everglades on the 20th.  Capt. John Johansen has reported some bigger tarpon action in the backcountry channels too, plus plenty of shark activity.  Looks like we have a little bit of west wind the next couple of days as we are experiencing a very minor cold front, may not be great for fishing for certain things but hopefully won't mess us up too bad.  Water temperatures shouldn't change much and our early spring should keep on going!  Give us a call if you want to get out on the water, it's definitely busy season here now and March is always cranking with spring break etc...  305-664-2461

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Jim and Gwen pose with her nice tarpon!

Eric shows off a nice spanish mackerel.

Brandon with his size larger tarpon.

Eric shows off this lunker 12.5 lb tripletail!

Big 'mud marlin' coming up from the depths.

Redfish and Snook combo!

Juvenile tarpon are always fun on light tackle.

Redfish in the backcountry creeks.

 

Cobia in the boat!

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Catch Information

Species:
Bull Shark
Bull Shark

Cobia
Cobia

Goliath Grouper
Goliath Grouper

Lane Snapper
Lane Snapper

Lionfish
Lionfish

Red Drum
Red Drum

Snook
Snook

Spanish Mackerel
Spanish Mackerel

Tarpon
Tarpon

Tripletail
Tripletail

This Fishing Report was submitted on 2/22/2017 11:06:28 AM by Seamus and last updated on 2/24/2017 11:06:28 AM.


Location

79851 Overseas Highway
Islamorada, FL US


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