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!

7/27/12 Islamorada tarpon fishing in July and backcountry fishing!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk had Brad, Shane, and Richard for several trips the past week.  Day 1 we fished a full day in the everglades backcountry fishing, catching plenty of trout, snappers, ladyfish, jacks - lots of rod bending action.  We put Richard on a big 200+ lb sawfish.  The sawfish had a cobia on him as well, about 15 lbs, which we got a hook in but spit the bait and disappeared!  We later caught a nice redfish and pulled on a couple sharks.  We then had some tarpon fishing to do, which coincided with the lobster mini season.  We went very early one morning at 4 am.  The tarpon in islamorada were not happy and it was slick calm with bully netters lighting things up everywhere!  No bites unfortunately...  But we made up for it later that evening, and caught 3 out of 4 tarpon.  2 on frozen mullets, and 2 other bites drifting crabs!  We also caught a couple big jacks and a sting ray.  The guys had so much fun they wanted to do it again the next night, and we got 2 more nice tarpon, and a big nurse shark.  They also fished offshore with the Redfish, Capt. Merv Finch, and caught some nice schoolie dolphin and a couple bigger slammers!  Today we had Erik Munchnick and family out for some fishing in the florida keys flats.  We caught some nice big trout and mangrove snappers on the edge of the gulf.  Drift some baits for some tarpon but no luck.  We hit a hole off east cape sable and the big goliaths were there - unfortunately no heavy duty tackle since I hadn't been catching these fish in there as of late, we broke 3 off in the rocks but did manage to get a 175 lber up to the boat!  Lots of little blacktips swarming the area as well.  We then ran back towards flamingo fishing and caught several nice big redfish up to 12 lbs on the edge of some banks to end the day!  They were eating GULPs and shrimps.

7/9/12 Florida Keys Fishing in July

Had Morgan and Julie out for a full day on 7/9/12 fishing in islamorada.  We went back into the gulf to try and catch some goliaths.  Action fishing was good early on, first two baits in the water we hooked double header permit on the light rods.  Very fun on the smaller tackle!  We then started to catch some nice size jacks and a mix of mangrove snappers, plus a couple of larger look-downs.  Lightning and thunder storms were around so we started to chunk some jacks and put the baits on the bottom.  We caught 2 out of 3 goliaths, up to about 80-90 lbs or so.  Morgan also caught a large bull shark.  Storms never made it to us, but the action slowed down and the weeds got very bad.  We saw some schooling tarpon rolling around us, and jumped one on a light rod.  Islamorada tarpon fishing has been picking up a little here late in the summer, with some fish showing up off the cape area in the day time, but you have to hit them early!  We ran back inside off the cape and tried fishing some markers, caught a handful of trout and snappers, and a blacktip shark.  Called it a day after that and headed home!  Still some good florida keys fishing to be had here in July!

4/11/12 Winds lay down.. major gulf/backcountry action!

The winds subsided the last couple of days to flat calm, giving some new options on florida keys backcountry charters.  Capt. Jim Willcox fished the gulf the last few days, running far back 30-40 miles to some wrecks.  They had some big sharks, goliath groupers, cobia, permit, and tripletail.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished off the cape, reporting several big sharks, mud marlins, and a big tarpon today.  They also caught plenty of big trout and tripletail on the way home.  Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti also had a nice goliath grouper and cobia today.  Many of the guides ran the trap buoys out west and the tripletails were pretty thick.  Lots of options, this is the time of year for great islamorada permit fishing in the gulf of mexico!.  The tides are right for evening tarpon fishing here the next several nights.. get out there and go fishing for tarpon in islamorada!!!

3/10/12 Spring time monsters of Islamorada

Well after a long week of high winds which is typical of March, we finally had a little calmer day today on 3/10/12.  Almost every boat was out today at Bud n' Mary's Marina, it's very busy and everyone is happy about that!  Fishing Islamorada in March has been tricky as the high winds have left the backcountry very stirred up, lots and lots of weed everywhere you go.  Winds were down but not gone, started this morning out of the north with some scattered showers around most people avoided.  By afternoon it swung around to the east and was blowing steady 15 mph again, still not too bad.  Most everyone did some drifting in the bays and muds in the backcountry.  Trout fishing was fair for most, not a red hot bite but most fish were keeper size.  A handful of ladyfish mixed in but most guys had to really run around to find any of those.  There were some keeper size mangrove snappers also out on the edge of the gulf for some good table fare.  We had several multi-boat group trips in the islamorada backcountry today, and all did plenty of rod bending and caught big fish.  Remember if you have a group charter, with Bud n' Mary's every captain and guide is at one dock, you can get your breakfast/lunch and drinks to go.  There is no calling multiple captains, wondering if one will not show or any miscommunication of what's going on.  We all get along and can work together to produce fish for everyone!  Capt. Rick Stanczyk had a slow start, but ended up catching 2 nice tarpon of 75 and 120 lbs plus several smaller blacktip sharks.  Capt. Jim Willcox caught some blacktips and lemon sharks, as well as a 250 lb goliath grouper that was 6 ft. long in one of the backcountry channels.  Capt. Clyde Upchurch had a large mud marlin and also caught a cobia off of him.  Capt. Perry Scuderi reported getting the leader on a 50 lb tarpon before he jumped off, and also reported a decent bite of pompano in a mud close to home.  Capt. Bill Bassett reported lots of sharks, from blacktips to lemons and bulls.  As you can see in the tarpon picture below, once the in tide got going the weed made it almost unfishable, hopefully it will clear up soon!  Islamorada tarpon fishing in March has been tricky, fish are around but conditions are not ideal.  On the islamorada deep sea fishing side both the BNM and Finnster reported some nice big amberjacks.  9 yar old Q caught a 76 lb amberjack with Capt. Nick Stanczyk on BNM.  Relentless had a couple sailfish, Reel McCoy ahd one sail, most boats had plenty of yellowtail on the reef, and Catch 22 had a pair of cobia up to 40 lbs.  Islamorada reef fishing has been steady and the yellowtails have been fairly big, lots of flags!