12/7/11 December Islamorada Fishing Report

Capt. Jim Willcox fished with Bud n' Mary's regulars Kevin and Susan Dunne today on 12/7/11.  They did a bit of everything as it was a gorgeous day to be on a florida keys fishing charter.  Several nice redfish and trout in the backcountry near the mainland, and this good size snook!  The mackerels bit well too they caught as many of those as they wanted!  Islamorada backcountry fishing has been great as of late with no major cold front shutting down the bays so get on out there while it's good!  Capt. John Johansen reported similar bite, they caught about 15 redfish, a snook, and lots of mackerel this afternoon!

5/11/11 Backcountry tarpon fishing Islamorada

Capt. Rick Stanczyk had Guillaume and his mother Christiane from Quebec out for some florida keys fishing today on 5/11/11!  We left the dock early, they were short on the shrimp delivery so we used some berkley gulps!  We caught several nice big trout, some ladyfish, and some snappers for dinner.  When the tide quit we ran inside around one of the islands and caught one nice redfish, had a couple other bites we missed.  Before the water got too low to get out, we jumped out and set up for some sharks and tarpon.  Caught a few blacktips, and had a few jump and bend out our wire!  Very exciting!  We also had one tarpon bite we missed, and about 20 minutes later, hooked about a 60 lber we caught!  Got him leadered to the boat, but when we tried to get our picture he came unhooked unfortunately.  Anyways a good day backcountry fishing in Islamorada.  Capt. John Johansen also had a nice catch of tripletails from out on the edge of the gulf, and Capt. Dave Sisung reported a good tarpon bite close to home, catching two and having a couple others chase the mullets on top.  Capt. Skip Nielsen also reported catching a huge 300 lb goliath grouper in one of the channels in the backcountry!  On the ocean side, Capt. Nick Stanczyk had a 200+ lb swordfish today offshore as well, I'm sure there will be pictures to come!

2/6/11 Backcountry Tarpon

Captain Jim Willcox did an AM 1/2 day this Super Sunday with JW Howard & his son Wade. They both caught non-stop jacks, trout & pompano. In the final hour 12 year old Wade caught his first permit & a 120lb tarpon.  Yesterday Capt. Jim fished and jumped 2 tarpon off, though did catch a few bull sharks and some other shark varieties, as well as some smaller stuff.  Capt. Jeff Beeler did catch a tarpon in the back yesterday as well.  Offshore today Capt. John Johnansen and Capt. Rick Stanczyk took some people fun fishing, and caught them their first sailfish, a nice 25 lb cobia, and limit of kingfish.  Saw plenty of sails though they were tough to get to eat and there was a tournament going on so we didn't want to mess with them too much, and a big school of smaller cobias, and the kingfish bit well!