1/2/12 Islamorada Offshore fishing for sailfish

The Cohen family has been fishing in islamorada out of Bud n' Mary's since 1971. When Capt. Skip Nielsen was a mate, dad Gerald caught his first sailfish. Now son Ben released his first sailfish fishing with Capt. Skip on new years eve.He used Foxsportfishing tackle on the Sailfish. His dad Gerald, fished with vic gaspeny years ago and released 17 bonefish in one day. They have spent a lot of days over the years fishing from Bud n' Mary's and still do so today!

1/1/12 Islamorada Fishing in January 2012

Happy New Year everyone, gorgeous weather today here fishing in islamorada!  Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti was out the other day and John Gray fishing along with his dad John Gray caught some nice Hogfish for dinner. They fished a full day in the backcountry. We released lots of nice trout and ladyfish. In the afternoon the winds dropped  off and we headed out to the shallow reef. Lots of action out there on barjacks and other hard fighting bottom dwellers.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk also fished Richard Cromwell and his son Luke, who are fishing with his brother Nick today offshore.  We caught a couple dozen reds, very beautiful fish way back in the everglades.  Also caught snappers, sheepshead, ladyfish, and jacks.  In the afternoon we ran out to some structure in the gulf and had a 35 lb cobia swim up but couldn't get him to eat.  Then we ended the day catching big trout in some channels and headed home!  Capt. John Johnsen fished the bay and ocean side as well yesterday... similar report mackerels, ladyfish, snapper in the back and lost a big goliath grouper at the boat.  Then caught hogfish and grouper oceanside and a nice cobia on fly rod!  Hope your out on the water today for your florida keys fishing in january!

Update on Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 06:41PM by Capt. Nick Stanczyk

Out on the Reef the New Year started out great as well. It was a beautiful day and Luke fished on the BNM and caught and released 2 sailfish, as well as keeping a couple of mahi, kingfish and yellow jacks. The Sugaree also had a limit of kingfish and a sailfish release.

12/25/11 Christmas Day Fishing in Islamorada Florida Keys!

Capt. John Johansen went out today with his friend Jimmy Conrad who has been islamorada fishing for fun with him the last few days in the florida keys backcountry.  The past few afternoons they've done very well spanish mackerel fishing in the bays!  Lots of spanish macks and bag limit of nice mangrove snappers for dinner.  Look for these fish to stick around well through the period of fishing islamorada in january!  They also caught some nice big blacktip sharks, pictured below is Capt. Johnsen with one fine specimen!  This afternoon on 12/25/11 christmas day they bonefished close to home as the wind did howl a bit during the day.  Jim caught this nice bonefish in the early evening to end his day of florida keys fishing!  Stake up fishing was a good bet with the overcast and windy conditions.  Stay tuned for more news about fishing in the keys and we'll have some great islamorada fishing reports this week as it is one our busiest weeks of the year!  If your down here stop down by Bud n' Mary's and get out on the water it's about as nice of weather as you could ask for christmas week here in the keys!

12/23/11 Christmas fishing in the Islamorada Backcountry!

Fishing in the backcountry was red hot today for Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti on 12/23/11. Lots of nice snook and redfish, which will hopefully continue biting into our january islamorada fishing report trips. Ned Barnes along with his son Tripp and niece Lauren released lots of both. They fished around flamingo with very low water as you can see from some of the pictures.  After the bite slowed we headed to the Gulf. Once there we caught lots of Spanish mackerel. The winds were down from  what they have been about a ten knot breeze out of the east, which is a releif as the past several days have been 15-25 knot winds - very windy month of December!  Christmas week fishing in the florida keys should be very nice as the temperature has been warm in the 70s and doesn't look like it will change much, so get out on the water if your down here!!!

12/18/11 Fishing the everglades and east cape.

Had John and his girlfriend over from across the pond (Australia!) today for a full day florida keys backcountry fishing trip!  We left out early at 7 am, stiff north-northeast breeze about 15mph, not too bad but a little chilly.  We headed back to the east cape area where fish have been stacking up in many of the canals and ditches.  First stop we fished a canal mouth, jigging shrimp and pinfish on the bottom.  Tide was still trickling in.  First fish of the day was a nice snook on one of the pins!  Also caught a few small reds and mix of crevalle jacks.  Moved a little further in to a run-off, tide switched and got the reds going pretty good there.  Caught probably 15, also a couple of nice sheeps head!  Headed a little further west to east cape canal and hit a few run-off creeks inside there.  One held some more decent redfish, and caught a couple nice black drum, along with a few more big sheepshead!  Bounced around since the bugs were bad (no-seeums!).  Did not do much else, ran to lake ingrham and caught a couple little reds there, stopped and ate lunch.  Headed back towards home, stopped for some islamorada flats fishing near one of the islands.  Drifted and poled one of the edges and found a school of little redfish, caught one.  Also blew out a snook.  For the end of the day tried mackerel fishing in the bay again, though the tide was hard into the wind, not ideal!  Caught a handful of blue runners and mangrove snappers, and then headed back home.  Christmas week is almost here so book your fishing trips today, soon we will be islamorada fishing in january!

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