1/13/2013 Backcountry Fishing Islamorada in High Winds!

On 1/13/2013 the east wind continued to roar and even picked up from yesterday blowing 15-20 today.  We still did some backcountry fishing islamorada and fished the edge of gulf of mexico for a half day.  We did the same thing yesterday in the wind.  Fishing was productive both days, yesterday was a little more action than today though we still kept the red bent today with about a dozen mackerels, including one 8 lb king mackerel.  Did I mention that islamorada fly fishing for mackerel is also a blast especially for beginners at fly casting!  Also plenty of runners, jacks, and nice size mangrove snappers if your looking for something to eat!  January islamorada fishing for spanish macks is usually a good bet on a half day.  The real exciting thing the past few days was the black tip shark action.  Plenty of big 50-80 lb bruisers that are in the mood to feed with the falling tide, a cut mackerel on the bottom doesn't last 5 minutes.  We went through several rigs but caught 2 yesterday and 2 today, including this nice specimen pictured that was ~70 lbs.  Today we also caught 2 (well, maybe the same one that was really hungry!) big nurse sharks over 200 lbs!  If you want to go shark fishing in the florida keys then this is a fun way to do it this time of year!  Yesterday we fished a full day and spent the afternoon hitting the low tide run-offs in the backcountry.  With the negative tide fish often get pushed into these tight areas, but can be some nice size trout and such!  That's it for this islamorada fishing report january. 

Capt. Rick Stanczyk