12/10/12 December Islamorada Fishing Report

Well today was fairly windy and warm for december fishing in islamorada.  Had a southeast breeze of 10-15 mph, unusual for this time of year.  Most of the time we are getting northerly breeze bringing down the cooler air in the winter.  Saturday and today I had Mike Traut fishing the florida keys backcountry.  On saturday we fished near flamingo, had the incoming tide all morning.  The water levels have not been fluctuating much this week due to unusual tidal influences, similar to the neap tide.  We picked around some islands at redfish that day, moving from spot to spot, finally did get into a decent mess of them catching 25 or so in all.  Finished that day with a snook in around a deeper island moat.  Flamingo fishing has been decent overall as the weather had not mixed the water up too bad back there.  Today on 12/10/12 we ran back to the cape, however the water out near east cape was fairly mixed up.  We caught the last of the falling tide in some of the creek runoffs there, and picked at redfish, jacks, and ladyfish.  I ran back to middle cape in search of cleaner water for our islamorada fishing trip and we did find some, however not much in the way of fish.  Did find a couple snook on one corner which looked very fishy but not much else, and caught some jacks and ladyfish on the shorelines.  So we ran back towards home and hit some spots on the way to the spanish mackerel fishing grounds, and did catch another dozen reds and a couple more snook.  We ended the day mackerel fishing, the chum didn't last long as the pinfish tore it up though luckily we didn't need much, within 15 minutes we were getting a mackerel bite every cast.  Caught maybe a dozen, plus a mix of bluefish, blue runners, and jacks.  Was good to see as the water temperature was warm about 77 degrees and incoming tide - not usually a good bet for spanish mackerel but I had a report from yesterday they were swarming which held true!  Had a very large shark that I don't think was a blacktip eat a mackerel right next to the boat which was pretty exciting too!  Shark fishing islamorada can be good this time of year when out mackerel fishing for the large blacktips!  Capt. Jim Willcox reported similar snook/redfish action today.  Capt.  Bill Bassett and Capt. Clyde Upchurch reported good spanish mackerel fishing yesterday on a half day as well.  Great time to be december fishing in the florida keys!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903
rick@fishingislamorada.com 

11/4/12 November Islamorada Fishing Report - gulf turns on!

Well the mud and nastiness from hurricane sandy has finally started to clear in the gulf and bays in the backcountry this islamorada fishing in november trip on 11/4/12.  We headed out west looking for spanish mackerel this morning as they start to show up this time of year.  Shrimp, pinfish, and some fresh pilchards were easy to obtain this morning and would prove great baits to have!  We hit a wreck that was loaded with various fish.  Some big mangrove snappers, lots of bluefish, jacks, ladyfish...  After 45 minutes or so a few mackerel started making there way in, we caught about half a dozen mostly decent sized fish and broke off a few others backcountry fishing florida keys.  In a few more weeks and after some more cold weather this fishery should improve.  Fishing the gulf of mexico can be a great option before the water gets down below 70 degrees. After we had our share of that, we headed further out into the gulf.  The water on the way was looking much better than previous days, we did hit a few muddy strips but once we got out further it was decent looking.  The tide was still falling and we hit another wreck 40 or so miles out from home.  Saw a school of islamorada permit as we pulled up, we set the anchor and put out some pinfish and a big rod on the bottom.  Had a couple more shots at permit, one swam into the boat and spooked and another would not eat he was laying on the surface though with a big chunk out of his back - must have almost been shark food!  We then had shots at cobias, catching 4 and one nice on of about 20 lbs on light tackle.  We also caught a small goliath grouper and about a 100 lb goliath, as well as a 250 lb bull shark that gave us a real fight!  After the tide quit things slowed down, so we looked for a few triple tail on the way in, saw a couple caught 1 and had another one eat, spit, and get spooked.  Anyways great day fishing the florida keys in november, we should have great tides and weather hopefully through the end of the week, so it's a great time for cobia fishing in islamorada as well as the rest of the gulf!  Capt. Jim Willcox and Capt. Perry Scuderi also had a group trip, both reported a couple cobias, mackerels, bluefish, snappers, and some big sharks - lots of action for their customers.  Capt. Ken Cohan had similar a simlar catch as well including two goliath groupers.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903
rick@seethefloridakeys.net 

12/6/11 Spanish mackerel fishing islamorada inshore

Jim & his friend is Ed from Maryland fished with Ed Cale today for a half day of fishing islamorada backcountry. They caught spanish macks, pompano, bluefish, bluerunner, bar jack, lane snapper, grey snapper & crevalle jacks!  Lots of action!  They also landed a nice blacktip shark.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk had them out the afternoon before, it was much windier and we couldn't fish the open bays, but got into some protected waters with several nice size trout, ladyfish, and a few mackerels as well.  The fishing further out west was not as good as it was close by, we did catch about a dozen spanish mackerels today, plus some blue runners, snappers, and ladyfish, but had to work at it pretty hard!  Long casts in the chum slick, alternating fast and slow retrieve with a double twitch produced fish best!  Good backcountry fishing action close to home with options on both the bay and ocean side depending on weather!

2/23 + 2/24 Lots macks, snappers, trout, and some big sea monsters!

Captain Rick Stanczyk & Captain Jim Willcox had the honor of fishing Ed Nightbert & Frank Sadler for one day each. These guys hunt & fish all over the world. After a great experience last year they returned to Bud & Mary's & stayed with us again.  Both days the boys caught their limit of snapper,many many mackerel, trout, ladyfish, jacks etc.....Then both days we put out the big rods. We had tarpon on, but they alluded us , however multiple large bull sharks & blacktips were brought to the boat by these guys. Both days the men experienced the huge mystery fish we encounter so big we couldn't get them past the leader. Bottom line serious heavy action both days. Here's Rick leadering up another monster fish, they fought this one for almost 2 hours and it drug them 4 miles into the Gulf of Mexico! Likely close to 1000 lbs, had some wraps on the wind-on leader, but the hook eventually broke.  Today Capt Jim fished Dennis & Laura fellow Philadephians, similar results as Ed & Frank with a finish of huge trout!!

1/24/11 - Reds, trout, and ladies - eating the fly!

Capt Jim Willcox fished with Kim, Andreas, & Rasmus from Denmark today. They caught multiple trout, reds, pompano, & lady fish, all on bait & on fly. The highlight of the day was Rasmus's first red on fly!  Capt. Rick Stanczyk also reported catching many reds, trout, ladyfish, and a mackerel and bluefish on his half day!