1/21/13 Great weather, great fishing in the florida keys!

Well fishing has continued to be good throughout this january fishing florida keys.  Yesterday and today the Cromwells, Rich and Luke, fished with Capt. Rick Stanczyk and Capt. Nick Stanczyk for some offshore and backcountry fishing.  Yesterday we fished the gulf mostly, stopped at the cape on the way to try and catch a snook.  We were successful and caught 2 nothing real big but snook none the less!  We then ran out into the gulf and hit some structure, no luck at the first stop, so continued west and ran the trap lines.  Tripetails were out, we messed with those for a bit and caught 6 in total all sight casting plus a few for dinner.  Islamorada triple tail fishing is lots of fun!  We hit our wreck destination right on time at the change of the tide.  Cobias popped up fairly quick, we caught 4/5 including one keeper all on light tackle.  We also had one goliath eat a live bait on the bottom though he wasn't able to swallow it and a shark ate it, unfortunately he was being picky and we never got him to bite again.  On the way home we caught some nice trout too, great day on this january backcountry fishing islamorada.  Capt. Ken Cohan also reported a good mix of fish in the bays.  They included spanish mackerel, bluefish, trout, ladyfish, pompano, and jacks.  Mostly fishing muds near the edge of the gulf back towards the cape area.  On the offshore side with the BNM they fished an afternoon 3/4 day.  They caught some tunas early offshore, nice blackfins.  Tuna fishing islamorada has been good as of late and provides great dinner for those that love fish!  They also caught nice yellowtail florida keys reef fishing.  At the end they stuck it out and Luke released 2 sailfish as well!  The Fearless with Capt. Joe Hendrix reported 20 nice blackfin tunas this morning out at the humps.  Also on the Catch 22, Capt. Scott Stanczyk fished Kris and Eugen Fine with a group of 6 including 4 US Army Officers on 1/20/13.  They had 5 sailfish dancing on the surface and caught!  They also caught some large blackfin tuna, a cobia, and bonita.

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

455# Daytime Swordfish aboard the BNM 9-24-11

We had John and Pam aboard the BNM for a Florida Keys Fishing Trip on 9-24-11. Pam insisted they were lucky and we were going to catch a swordfish guaranteed. I told both of them we had a good shot, but there had been quite a few small fish around which can be very frustrating when trying to hook them in the daytime. John is a Navy vet returned to the U.S. and was very much looking forward to a fishing trip!  Well it wasn't long until their luck kicked in, on the way out at 15 knots our high speed lure starts screaming and 10 minutes later John catches his first wahoo, a nice 28 lber. I was thinking at least we didn't get skunked today. We continued out to the swordfish grounds and a few miles inside we found a nice weed line with some mahi on it. We hit one school and caught 15 nice schoolies and a couple small gaffers. Both John and Pam were all smiles and I though maybe they wouldn't even notice if we didn't catch a swordfish. An hour later we were on the bottom in 1500' drifting for a broadbill. After 30 minutes we hooked up, the fish seemed small, and after 10 minutes he threw the hook. We make another drift in the same area, but after an hour with no bite, we wind up. I run a few miles south and drop again. After 45 minutes without a bite, we get ready to wind up, and there she is. We're hooked up to a daytime sword. John gets in the chair and goes to work. After an hour I see the fish, I know she's big, but not quite how big. The fish dives all the way back to the bottom and John goes back to work. At 2 hours he has her near the boat again, I see the swivel behind her tail and realize the fish is foul hooked in the belly somewhere. After a couple quick loops the fish goes back to the bottom. Now we're 3 hours into the fight, and John gets the fish within 50' of the boat again, we get a quick glimpse, but down shes goes. At 4 hours into the fight, and everybody exhausted, John gets the fish 10 feet away! We get a harpoon shot, but it pulls out after a few seconds. The fish looks like it's getting tired though, but still dives back to the bottom. We've drifted 11 miles now and John has been on the fish 4 and 1/2 hours! It looks like the fish is dying, since we've been trying to pull her backwards, but she still keeps swimming. The fish makes one last dive, down to 700', luckily not the bottom again, and then races back up. I look at the clock and realize we've been on the fish 5 hours. Before I know it the fish is at the back of the boat, I run back, throw the harpoon in her, hit her with a straight gaff, Pam hands both Matt and John the other gaffs, and we get all of them in the fish. But she isn't done yet. For 5 minutes she kicks and throws water everywhere next to the boat. Finally the fish is subdued and we bring her through the door. It was the hardest fight I've ever seen on a swordfish. The fish was hooked in the anal fin, but John and Pam had good luck and somehow it stayed in the whole time. We steam for home, everybody exhausted and make the call to fire up the forklift. We hit the dock and the fish weighs in at 455 lbs! This is on the biggest swordfish ever caught on rod and reel in the Florida Keys! We also fished the day before and went 2 for 3 on swordfish, keeping a 65 lber and releasing another. This is the place for Daytime Swordfishing!

A strange find...

Capt. Nick Stanczyk while out on a daytime swordfishing charter out of Bud n' Mary's Marina in Islamorada, Florida found this strange creature floating...  It is an oar fish, and is a very rare deep water fish!  This thing was floating recently killed in about 1800 feet of water and was almost 10 feet long!  Check him out.  And come on down for a trip to do some florida keys fishing!

4/11/11 Big day backcountry fishing tarpon!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk had a wonderful day in the islamorada backcountry fishing along with several other guides as well!  He fished Roger Barry and his son James from the U.K.  Roger fished with his father Richard Stanczyk almost 20 years ago for tarpon down here and loved fishing with him because Richard was always sharing his knowledge of fishing with him!  Well today was a treat for them, we caught and released two tarpon up to 60 lbs on the spinning rods which was a lot of fun!  Roger also caught this giant 400 lb goliath grouper off a bottom bait which was an unusual catch and quite amazing!  James also caught a large bottom dweller that was almost 250 lbs all by himself.  We also caught a small blacktip.  Capt. Jim Willcox was fishing next to us and went 2 for 4 on the tarpon.  Capt. Skip Nielsen reported good fishing as well, and Capt. Bill Basset jumped 5 fish.  Capt. Mike Basset had a nice snook in the back and caught three the day before which was good to see, plus several puppy drum reds.  The trout and ladyfish were biting decent as well.  On the ocean side, the Kalex had a rackful of nice 25-30 lb blackfin tunas!  The BnM caught another big tiger shark as well, and the Catch 22 reported a 600 lb mako eating several jacks and such they were trying to catch before they could get them to the boat!  Exciting fishing in Islamorada this April!!!

2/18 + 2/19 - Quality, not quantity, in the offshore and backcountry!

The Proctor family fished with Capt. Nick & Capt. Rick Stanczyk this weekend, 2/18/11 and 2/19/11, for some offshore and backcountry action.  They fished aboard the "BnM" on Friday for a full day.  Fishing was kind of tough, sailfish did not cooperate, nor the king macs, or even the yellowtails on the reef!  However, they did catch a nice 40 lb cobia out of the kite while sailfishing!  They also dropped on a hole and caught a huge 18 lb mutton, as well as a 20 lb black grouper, too bad they weren't in season!  They also caught a few tunas, a schoolie dolphin, some kingfish and a big ol' porgy!  Saturday they went for a half day with Capt. Rick Stanczyk in the backcountry.  They fished the edge of the gulf, again fishing was a little tough back there, though they did catch about 15 spanish macs, ladyfish, a couple bluefish, 2 nice blacktip/spinner sharks, and a lil' 10 lb. cobia on the light jig rod - very fun on light tackle!  Sometimes it's quality, not quantity, that counts!  As the weather continues to warm up, the backcountry fishing should really be taking off again, looking forward to great days in the gulf, as well as tarpon fishing in the back!!!

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