3/7/11 Silver Kings plus a silver trout!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished Jim & Gwen Johnson today on 3/7/11 for a great day fishing in Islamorada!  They fished with Rick last winter when it was very cold so thought they'd give it a try in the spring when it was warmer!!!  They ran 18 or so miles into the everglades national park and fished some channels back there, catching plenty of trout, ladyfish, jacks, and of course catfish!  Good action pretty much non-stop!  They stayed in the same area and put the big rods out for some bigger stuff.  They caught plenty of sharks for the rest of the afternoon, mostly black tips and a couple lunker nurse sharks!  They also caught 2 out of 3 tarpon which was a delight and Jim's dream to catch!  Gwen got to catch one as well so that made it even better!  One fish was close to 100 lbs and the other was 65-75 lbs!  While fishing for these we caught plenty more ladyfish and also this unusual silver trout with no spots!  Great action and fun while florida tarpon fishing!!!

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

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!

3/3/11 Windy day backcountry fishing, but good florida keys fishing action!

Well it was HOWLING today, reports of 33mph sustained winds out of the east - very nasty!  Though the backcountry wasn't too bad if you rode along the edges of the banks and fished the runoff channels and such where you were protected.  That's what Capt. Rick Stanczyk did, he had Dan Memory out for his first islamorada fishing trip.  They started off catching some whopper trout, some over 20 inches, which were very nice as there hadn't been many big ones around.  We also caught a handful of redfish, ladyfish, and an unusual flounder.  We then put the big rods out which was tough as there were 3 footers in the main channel where we shark/tarpon fish with the tide going right into the wind!  We gave it a try and ended up getting a few shark bites which bit us off, so we put the wire on and ended up catching a few blacktips which were very cool and acrobatic!  We had two big 'mud marlin' on again as well, one slashed through the leader pretty quickly as he made his way directly out into the gulf - which was likely for the best as it was very rough out there!  The other we fought for about 45 minutes and he stayed in the channel hugged to the bottom, though it was tough to pull on the leader myself and drive the boat at the same time with the howling winds, we finally got him tired and coming up a little when he started slashing around on the bottom and knicked the wind-on leader above the wire.  But very tough battle, Dan said it was like trying to pull up a small car!

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!

2/23 + 2/24 Lots macks, snappers, trout, and some big sea monsters!

Captain Rick Stanczyk & Captain Jim Willcox had the honor of fishing Ed Nightbert & Frank Sadler for one day each. These guys hunt & fish all over the world. After a great experience last year they returned to Bud & Mary's & stayed with us again.  Both days the boys caught their limit of snapper,many many mackerel, trout, ladyfish, jacks etc.....Then both days we put out the big rods. We had tarpon on, but they alluded us , however multiple large bull sharks & blacktips were brought to the boat by these guys. Both days the men experienced the huge mystery fish we encounter so big we couldn't get them past the leader. Bottom line serious heavy action both days. Here's Rick leadering up another monster fish, they fought this one for almost 2 hours and it drug them 4 miles into the Gulf of Mexico! Likely close to 1000 lbs, had some wraps on the wind-on leader, but the hook eventually broke.  Today Capt Jim fished Dennis & Laura fellow Philadephians, similar results as Ed & Frank with a finish of huge trout!!