1/24/13 Winter fishing islamorada backcountry in January!

Well it cooled down a bit again as we had another small cold front pass through the last couple days.  Today on 1/24/13 it was a chilly ride into the islamorada backcountry fishing.  Many guides repoted having to wear jackets and long pants all day so remember to bring them!  Capt. Mike Bassett reported good fishing back around the cape area of the mainland.  He had some fellows from Minnesotta down staying at Bud n Marys and happy to be out of the cold weather back home!  They got into redfish, black drum, trout, and snook.  Fishing mostly the deeper runoffs and plugs slow jigging shrimp.  January islamorada fishing is often good in those areas!  Capt. Jeff Beeler reported some trout, ladyfish, jacks, etc... out west on the edge of the gulf, kind of a slower pick, but they also caught some sharks as well at the end of the falling tide as things warmed up a bit and the sun radiated.  Islamorada shark fishing can be done all year long as you can see, though is often tougher when the water is colder.  Capt. Bob Reineman had some good islamorada flats fishing for redfish, they poled and blind casted and caught 30 or so on bucktails.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished a later afternoon half and we got into a pretty solid bit of trout, ladyfish, jacks, pompano, and even a few spanish mackerel mixed in.  One real nice size trout as well as big ladyfish, the rest were mostly throwbacks but fun to bend the rod on.  We also picked a handful of redfish around one of the islands before heading home this afternoon.  The weather should be decent the next few days but still a little chilly, so go out for some great january florida keys fishing!