10/8/12 October Fishing in the Florida Keys

Well over the past weekend here, islamorada fishing in october has continued to prove it's a great time of year to come down and fish.  Shots at all kinds of fish are possible, there's much less boat traffic on the water, and for the most part conditions have been good with light winds and a tad less heat than a few months ago.  In the backcountry fishing florida keys Capt. Jim Willcox had some fabulous fishing.  They had a tarpon on fly first thing in the morning, then some monster redfish on fly!  Pretty impressive size red drum for down here fishing islamorada.  They also had multiple big jacks and some cobias, which have still been around both in the gulf as well as offshore which is unusual for this time of year.  On the offshore side there has been some sailfishing in Islamorada starting to happen.  Both Sugaree and Strictly Business has sailfish releases as well as some good catches of king mackerel (kingfish).  The Strictly business also had a decent catch of yellowtail snapper.  On Friday the Relentless had a good catch of mahi and blackfin tuna further offshore.  Great to still have some islamorada dolphin fishing going on!  Weather looks fairly calm and stable this week with winds out of the northeast which is the norm entering the fall, which should be good for fishing this time of year!

10/3/12 October Islamorada Fishing Report

Went fun fishing today with fellow captain Mike Bassett for some October fishing in Islamorada.  We headed way back off the mainland deep in the everglades to check things out.  The winds had been fairly wild the last few days, and on the way there I had my doubts as to whether the fishing would be good.  Lots of muddy water, weeds, etc...  We kept chugging back there and luckily found a few areas where the tide falling out of the creeks was very clean looking water.  We fished all over, trying some new spots and fishing some other mouths, runoffs, and sandbars that I've fished the last couple weeks.  Most spots were holding nice snook in islamorada.  We caught probably a dozen in total and missing another 6 or so, as well as 20 redfish, mostly on pinfish and some on shrimp.  Most the reds were slot size though not many bigger than 22 inches or so.  The tide ran out for a very long time, longer than it was suppose too.  The wind also kept it moving out even when the level started to rise, as we could see the muddy water making its way in - very strange!  Also bagged a nice tripletail on the way home for dinner, as well as a bullshark on light tackle.  I also lost a 15+ lb snook on my engine at the end of the day fishing a new spot - but got a good look at him at least!  Great florida keys fishing in october especially for a day when things didn't look so hot to begin with!  On the offshore side Sugaree stayed on the reef catching some close in mahi, yellowtails, and an unexpected cobia.  The relentless and redfish had some more yellowtails, mutton snapper, black grouper, and cero mackerel mixed in.  The Catch 22 had some nice tunas a couple days ago 10-18 lbs, as well as a 90 lb sword.  That's the great thing about fall fishing in Islamorada is that you never know what you might get since we're in a transitional period!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

9/11/12 Backcountry September Islamorada Fishing Report

Well the winds swung around from the west to out of the north this morning on 9/11/12, giving us some nice cooler air for most of the morning on today's september islamorada fishing charter.  Lots of rain last night as well over the mainland and cape area of the everglades, we dodge a bit throughout the day which pleasently cooled us off!  Had the Leon's down from Miami FL, father and son.  We started out on the edge of the gulf this morning, leaving early at 10 till 7 AM.  Trout, snapper, ladyfish, and jacks were biting non-stop.  Lots of decent size trout for dinner with some nice mangroves mixed in.  We did this for about half an hour, then decided to try some other stuff before it got too hot on this florida keys fishing september trip.  We then ran towards the cape and tried fishing in some of the finger creeks that go up inside.  Tide was still coming in, with plenty of high water to get around.  We ended up catching 2 snook, one decent one of about 6 lbs, all on big shrimp which were available due to the cooler weather the night before.  There were a handful of baby tarpon at the mouth of one of these canals too, though we did not get any bites out of them while trying to drift large shrimp back on corks.  We ran out and tried some spots in the near gulf for some different action.  We caught 2 large 'sea monsters,' one was likely 300 lbs - exciting stuff backcountry fishing in islamorada!  We also caught half a dozen cobias on pinfish, a couple were keeper size, though we only kept one as that's all we had room for!  We also jumped a 60 lb tarpon off, and saw plenty more rolling rolling around.  Then headed back towards flamingo fishing for some redfish while the water was still high enough to hit some shoreline spots.  We worked a few areas and finally got into some, catching about 10 in total with a few slot size fish, all of which we released.  Great stuff to write about for this september florida keys fishing report, hopefully things will continue to be good out there!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

8/10/12 Backcountry fishing.. bonefish and action in the gulf

Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti reported this morning.. Had Jack ,Roman and chad out on a half day of fishing for tarpon and bone fish. After two hours of tarpon fishing in Islamorada with no luck we switched gears and went for bones. We saw several groups of fish and managed to catch a nice 7 pounder to end our day. Bone fishing remains steady for the patient fisherman.  Nice Islamorada bonefish!

Capt. Jim Willcox reported some good fishing in the florida keys backcountry with lots of trout and redfish action.  They also caught 2 nice cobias, some black tip sharks, and a couple of 'sea monsters' by mistake!  Capt. Rick Stanczyk also ventured out further into the gulf, reporting good trout/snapper/etc.. action early with a mix of mackerels too.  Once the tide started falling they had a few shots at permit, catching 2 and losing 2 to sharks, as well as 3 cobia, and several goliath groupers.

7/28/12 Fishing the gulf of mexico

Capt. Rick Stanczyk had Bob Davidson and crew out for a day of fishing the gulf of mexico on 7/28/12.  We started off some of the banks that line the edge of everglades national park and the gulf.  The bite was hot with a mix of big ladyfish, sea trout, mangrove snappers, and jack crevelle.  We loaded up on fish for dinner, as well as more for bait for larger specimen.  We then headed to try to find some goliaths we had some action with the prior day, however another boat was fishing it, so we headed back west into the open gulf.  We had one of wrecks to our selves and the fish were there!  We had the last of the incoming tide.  Big schools of permit in every direction, great permit fishing in islamorada.  We caught about 8 total on shrimp and even bare jigs!  We tried pitching the one crab we had to some of the larger ones, though they did not appear interested.  After the tide started to fall we anchored up, and chunked up some ladyfish and caught 6 big goliath groupers up to 200 lbs!  Bob also got a nice 75 lb bull shark.  We also managed one cobia to the boat, and had one other small 4 pack follow a goliath up and disappear.  Great action and love to see it this time of year!

Capt. Bill Bassett also fished in the backcountry today and reported good action.  They caught plenty of trout and ladyfish in the bays.  They found lots of tarpon around some islands and had a couple in the air!  They also poled around a bit later and caught several redfish, after that they headed in a little earlier to beat the heat!