5/5/11 Busy in the backcountry!

Braganini brothers,long time Bud & Mary's folks, today with Capt Jim Willcox caught Tarpon, 4 tripletails,many trout & doubleheader redfish way far away from the crowds!!!  Also Capt. Rick Stanczyk made it out there today.  Had my regulars Rick Coyne and Steve Tyson for 2 days and 2 nights.  Had several big bull sharks, hammerhead shark, cobia, mackerels, jacks, lost possibly a big tarpon to a huge tiger or hammerhead shark???  Reeled a permit to the boat that ran off and also got eaten by bull sharks.  Very exciting day.  The other day we caught big goliath and had a mud marlin on we pulled off.  Also caught several tarpon on our two evening trips.  Have a few pics but forgot the camera o nthe boat, sorry on the lack of updates fishing full days and nights all week has left me a little drained.

4/17/11 BIG day gulf side!

Capt. Jim Willcox and Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished another day with our english gents from the U.K. for their 4th day here fishing in Islamorada.  The winds laid down to flat come so we had an opportunity to run far from home and fish the middle of nowhere.  Tarpon and permit were laid up everywhere as it was slick calm.  Capt. Jim caught 2 tarpon and Capt. Rick caught 1.  Capt. Rick also had a couple cobias swim up and we caught those as well.  We ran a little further out later on, unfortunately Capt. Rick had gotten eaten off by tarpon and permits and ran out of crabs.  They fished with the big rods and caught 4 big bull sharks up to 400 lbs!!!  Also caught two goliath groupers, one which was close to 350 lbs!  Capt. Jim caught 3 permit and was able to safely release them away from the bull sharks, and also caught a couple big bulls.  Both also caught some big jacks and a few spanish mackerels as well.  Great day for these brits on their florida fishing vacation!!! 

 

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!!!

Great April Tarpon Fishing for Capt. Skip Nielsen

Capt. Skip reported yesterday that he had Deb and Rich Riolo the night before. They are staying upstairs over the tackle shop this week. They come down every year first week of April and last night released 3 Tarpon. We had lots of action.Tarpon were blasting our live mullet and "cheap shotting" us. Deb and Rich managed to hook 3 out of 10 bites. Great sunset Tarpon bite!  They also fished today and caught 4 tarpon in the backcountry!  They got DNA samples of one tarpon Deb caught for research purposes!  They also caught this toothy cuda!

Capt. Jim Willcox also caught a toothy cuda on a half day the day before, check this guy out!!!

3/24/11 West wind can be trouble, though turned out alright today!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished Larry and Sherri Kasperek today for a 3/4 day of florida keys fishing!  We headed out back into the everglades around 7:30 am and it was an absolutely gorgeous day - almost flat calm with a slight breeze out of the west.  This is usually not ideal for fishing in our area, though today it didn't seem to bother things much.  We caught plenty of trout, several nice ones in the 17-20 inch range.  Plus lots of big ladyfish which were jumping all over, a few snappers, mackerel, and a pompano - good mix of fish for drifting around randomly in the bay!  They wanted to catch something big like a shark too, so I headed over to one of my favorite spots nearby and put the big rods out with some dead baits on the bottom.  A couple other boats were anchored nearby, Capt. Jim Willcox and Capt. Jeff Beeler.  Last week I had gotten a bad batch of circle hooks, straightened the circle hooks on two tarpon in a row with my anglers doing everything right! Also straightened one out on a big 'sea monster' that was locked on the bottom after only pulling on him for about 10 minutes, so I know it had to be the hooks.  So we went old school with a traditional J-hook as I've second guessed myself out of using them!  Not much action at first, Capt. Jim had hooked a few small blacktips that he caught, then we had something big grab the bait and start swimming across the stern.  I locked it up and reeled the line tight and handed the rod to Sherri.  Then a big 100 lb tarpon came blasting out of the water, jumping 4 or 5 times behind the boat.  I had Sherri point the rod at the fish to keep from pulling the hook and she did a great job, we tossed our anchor ball and raced after him.  He jumped himself out and we caught up with him, snapping a few pictures and releasing him for another day unharmed!  Sherri said it was the biggest fish she ever caught and one of the most exciting things she'd ever done!  We fished the last hour there without much of anything happening, Capt. Jeff hooked and caught a larger blacktip near us.  Then the other guys headed to another spot and we made our way home as the tide was starting to die and it was time to head in anyways.  Well another successful day with some florida tarpon fishing!