2011 Islamorada Sailfish Tournament

For the 48th year in a row the Islamorada Sailfish Tournament took place over a 3 day span. The first day of fishing was Friday the 2nd and ended on Sunday the 4th. There was 23 different teams fishing the event. It was an exciting tournament with a great bite of sailfish. The first day there was 3 different boats all with 7 sailfish, including the KALEX in first (on time) and the BODACIOUS in third. The second day was an even better bite of sailfish and it was back and forth all day long with fish being released. On Saturday the CATCH 22 released 12 sailfish, giving him 17 total, and the BODACIOUS also released 12 more sailfish giving them 19 total. Capt. Nick Stanczyk was fishing as an angler aboard his friends Henry and Shay Danzig's private boat BODACIOUS with his life long friend Taylor Walsh at the wheel. Allen Wood was also an angler and Topher Wightman was the designated mate. We knew they were coming for us with Nick's Uncle Capt. Scott Stanczyk running the CATCH 22, and the other boats at the marina weren't far out of the lead either. On the final day both the BODACIOUS and CATCH 22 released a sailfish early, but then hit a dry spell. The KALEX put a quick 4 on the board to get to 18 fish, but then two other boats jumped them, the Contagious caught 5 giving them 20 sailfish with 30 minutes to go and the Wound Up was on fire releasing 9 sailfish, giving them 19 total. The CATCH 22 caught another sailfish giving them 19 releases, with 20 minutes to go. A double header for either boat would have put them in 1st place, or a single for Contagious. The clock was ticking but finally BODACIOUS hooked up and caught a double header with 3 minutes to go! It gave us a little breathing room and finally lines were called out. BODACIOUS finished in 1st place with 22 releases, CONTAGIOUS in 2nd with 20 releases, WOUND UP with 19 releases in 3rd, CATCH 22 with 19 releases in 4th, and KALEX with 18 releases in 5th. There will be over a dozen sailfish tournaments the next 3 months so if you ever want to get involved come on down to Islamorada.

11/27/11 Islamorada Reef Fishing

Well the wind has been blowing the past few days but it hasn't stopped everybody from going fishing. We had Henry and his friends and family out on the BNM today for an Islamorada Fishing Trip. The water was a little dirty which made for good bottom fishing. We anchored down after catching some bait and it didn't take long till we had some action. We would up keeping a mix of 20 yellowtail and mangrove snapper, 3 mutton snapper, and 10 cero mackerel. The Reel McCoy aslo fished a half day and had a rack full of mahi, mostly schoolies but one nice 25 lb slammer! The Kalex was out all day and finished up releasing 4 sailfish. There's been a few good days of sailfishing so far this season, but hopefully it continues to get better.

November 22nd 2011 Fishing Report for Islamorada, Florida Keys

Well what a difference in fishing a day can make. There was a handful of sailfish caught yesterday, but today The Reel McCoy caught and released 11 sailfish! They also had a 35 lb bull dolphin (mahi). A few of the other boats had sailfish, some mahi, and lots of yellowtail snapper. It looks like the Sailfish might be here to stay now and hopefully they keep biting. Islamorada Fishing is as good as it gets now!

Florida Keys Deep Sea Fishing in November...

Well the fishing was great for all the boats that fished today. Most boats had 30 or more Mahi, the biggest on the dock were 20 lbs, but most were nice schoolies in the 4 - 6 lb range. The Reel McCoy stayed on the edge of the reef this morning and released 3 sailfish on a Islamorada Half Day Fishing Trip, the BNM also released a sailfish in addition to keeping a limit of Mahi and a 20 lb Black Grouper on a morning half day as well. The Kalex had a box full of Mahi and a sailfish too. It's very unusual to have this many Mahi here this late in the year, but it's made for some exciting fishing the last few weeks. It also seems like the sailfish might finally be moving in and hopefully the bite will stay consistent. Get on down for your Florida Key Fishing Charter.

November Florida Keys fishing report! 11-14-11

We fished an afternoon half day trip yesterday and a morning half day today aboard the BNM. The Florida Keys Fishing was productive as usual and everybody was happy. It hasn't been red hot, but enough fish to keep us busy. Yesterday we caught a couple of scamp grouper, a couple porgy's, a couple kingfish, one was nice weighing over 20 lbs, and more blue runners than you could count. Today we had a family with 3 young kids and the 2 boys were non stop on the fish. They caught a bunch of juvenile mutton snapper, a handful of small grouper, lots of grunts, and then we kept some decent yellowtail snapper for dinner as well as half a dozen nice sized cero mackerel. Little Nicholas said we could call him "king of the mackerel" and I nicknamed Aden the "grouper trouper".