2/19/12 Backcountry fishing florida keys february.

Well the wind kicked up out of the southwest this morning and by the end of the day was howling for islamorada fishing in february.  This really churned up the water in a lot of the backcountry.  We weren't able to do anything on the edge of the gulf or back at the cape, so stuck around flamingo.  Caught plenty of ladyfish and trout in several spots.  Shark fished for a while and caught a nice 80 lb blacktip.  Saw a few tarpon rolling but they were not biting.  As the tide died we moved, lots more trout and ladyfish and a few pompano and jacks.  Water was incoming now and we decided to try some redfish spots.  Hit the right spot first and spent our last hour catching about a dozen reds, several slot size fish 20+ inches.  Also caught a big black drum and a smaller one, and a sting ray.  Good finish to the day.  Capt. Bob Reineman reported catching several redfish poling and casting.  Capt. Jim Willcox reported some good action with snappers, trout, and ladyfish, and lots of small blacktips and a big 100 lber further out west for his day of february florida keys fishing.  -- Capt. Rick Stanczyk

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.

12/6/11 Spanish mackerel fishing islamorada inshore

Jim & his friend is Ed from Maryland fished with Ed Cale today for a half day of fishing islamorada backcountry. They caught spanish macks, pompano, bluefish, bluerunner, bar jack, lane snapper, grey snapper & crevalle jacks!  Lots of action!  They also landed a nice blacktip shark.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk had them out the afternoon before, it was much windier and we couldn't fish the open bays, but got into some protected waters with several nice size trout, ladyfish, and a few mackerels as well.  The fishing further out west was not as good as it was close by, we did catch about a dozen spanish mackerels today, plus some blue runners, snappers, and ladyfish, but had to work at it pretty hard!  Long casts in the chum slick, alternating fast and slow retrieve with a double twitch produced fish best!  Good backcountry fishing action close to home with options on both the bay and ocean side depending on weather!

12/4/11 Islamorada Flats Fishing in December

Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti had the boys from University of Northwest Ohio out for a few hours and caught ladyfish, mackerel and a few small blacktip sharks. Plenty of action in the muds and such in the bays close to home.  The wind was howling 20-25 mph out of east/north east.  Islamorada flats fishing in december has been good, lots of options as the water hasn't chilled too much yet.  The Bodacious with Capt. Nick Stanczyk as angler and crew mate won the Islamorada Sailfish Tournament for 2011 with 22 sailfish in 3 days, great job!  The Catch 22 and Kalex out of Bud n' Mary's also placed in top 5. Florida Keys Deep Sea Fishing has been good if you can stand the chop, lots of muttons and a few groupers roaming the reefs and in the sand.  Come on down now it's a great time to go december fishing in the florida keys before the craziness of christmas week!

11/23/11 Islamorada spanish mackerel fishing

Well the wind came around from the south this morning and laid down nicely as the day went on during 11/23/11.  Wasn't too bad to start out with.  We got out for a morning half day and had good conditions, tide headed towards the gulf off sprigger bank area.  Put the chum bag out and fish were around us instantly.  Started off with lots of big ladyfish and blue runners, and several nice mangrove snappers as well as a handful of trout.  Spanish mackerel were soon to follow, several large fish that were 4-5 lbs.  Much fun on light tackle.  Bare jigs with shrimp worked fine, though shiny mylar jigs were the hot ticket, didn't even need shrimp at the end.  Here is Ambrose pictured with one nice Mack.  They bit almost every cast eventually until the tide stopped.  At the end of the tide we put some dead mackerel chunks on the bottom for sharks, hooked a couple big black tips though they broke us off pretty quick, as well as a big nurse shark we pulled the hooks on.  Oh well still plenty of fun, get on out there this thanksgiving weekend, will have great tide for that, as well as in the backcountry for most of the day!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903