3/6/11 Shark fishing in florida! Plus a strange surprise!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk and Capt. Jim Willcox had a group of british regulars, Bill Chisolm and party, out for some backcountry fishing today.  This was the 1st of 5 days fishing and staying at Bud n' Mary's!  We left out and headed to the backcountry early this morning for some islamorada fishing.  We stopped in some channels and caught plenty of trout, ladyfish, jacks, and pompano.  Capt. Rick caught a blacktip and this big lemon shark in there as well, plus had another shark bite through the leader.  We saw a handful of tarpon rolling around in there but no bites out of them.  Later on both Capt. Jim & Rick fished together trying to catch the boys a tarpon but no luck, though we did each hook big lunker 'mud marlin' at the same time!  Bills was so big he thrased under the boat and broke the rod on us and slashed through the leader, and Jims got off too unfortunately, but they are usually to big to handle on the standard tarpon gear!  Jim also had this big eagle ray actually eat a tarpon bait and they ended up catching it!  We ended up catching a couple other sharks, and some more trout while we were waiting, so a day with some good action!

2-27-11 Backcountry mixed bag!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk had Charles Ruoff out fishing today in the backcountry.  We mixed things up a bit, first caught some nice mangrove snappers for dinner and a nice red grouper.  We actually hooked the red the day before and he cut us off, and we got the jigs back from out of his mouth!  After this we moved out further and caught some mackerels and blue runners, they weren't biting great but good enough the water was pretty clear and current into the wind didn't help.  After this we tried some tarpon spots, though didn't see any fish and no bites, though did catch a few blacktip sharks.  Ran out to closer gulf spot, but no signs of any real life so we moved back into the backcountry.  After putting the tarpon rods out again for a bit with just a shark bite, we decided to finish the day just bending the rod on small stuff.  Lots of ladyfish and jacks with a handful of trout, pompano, snappers, and this nice little baby permit in some ditches nearby!!

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

My brother also fished Thomas from the local resturant Overseas Kitchen today on the "BnM" and caught over 20 tunas and this nice amberjack!

2/17/11 - Good action in the bay, and a nice permit!

Captain Jim Willcox had the pleasure of fishing with Mr Richard Alt today, a 40 year veteran of fishing in Islamorada. We caught jacks ,trout, mackerel, 3 big blacktip sharks, but today was special because this 25lb permit was Richards first!

1-21-11 Plenty of backcountry fish!

Matt Waddell and his son Jay, first timers at Florida Keys Fishing promised to come back every year after a full day with Captain Jim Willcox. They caught their limit of snappers, & many mackerel,bluefish , Ladyfish, 4  pompano, and a big blacktip shark Jay's first!!!  Very exciting stuff fishing in Islamorada!  Capt. Rick Stancyk had regulars Rob and his buddy Lee from NJ and they reported catching many redfish as well as snappers, trout, pompano, and a handful of mackerels.  Caught a few pompanos and jacks on fly as well!

1-16-11 - Backcountry action!!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished Howard and Mike today for a full day in the backcountry off of Islamorada, Florida Keys.  We had incoming tide most of the day, so we ran and fished the edge of the gulf of mexico to fish for spanish mackerel.  The mackerel bite was great!  We stopped at some sunken debris down off long key.  Caught probably 2 dozen, and a dozen or so nice mangrove snappers.  After this we ran further out in the the gulf, and hit a couple more spots in hops of fishing for cobia or maybe getting a nice goliath grouper or shark.  Unfortunately the water was still a little chilly, in the low 60s, so we didn't have much luck with anything except some small jacks.  We ran back into the park around 11:30 and caught the last of the in tide in a little runoff and caught some nice trout and ladyfish!  When that dried up, we moved to another runoff a couple miles away, and caught the beginning of the falling tide.  Some more trout and ladyfish, and we also caught half a dozen pompanos which was a nice surprise!  No redfish, and had to cut our trip a little short before the tide got low enough for them to stack up, but great action and variety fishing the florida everglades!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903
http://www.budnmarys.com
rick@seethefloridakeys.net