8/10/12 Backcountry fishing.. bonefish and action in the gulf

Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti reported this morning.. Had Jack ,Roman and chad out on a half day of fishing for tarpon and bone fish. After two hours of tarpon fishing in Islamorada with no luck we switched gears and went for bones. We saw several groups of fish and managed to catch a nice 7 pounder to end our day. Bone fishing remains steady for the patient fisherman.  Nice Islamorada bonefish!

Capt. Jim Willcox reported some good fishing in the florida keys backcountry with lots of trout and redfish action.  They also caught 2 nice cobias, some black tip sharks, and a couple of 'sea monsters' by mistake!  Capt. Rick Stanczyk also ventured out further into the gulf, reporting good trout/snapper/etc.. action early with a mix of mackerels too.  Once the tide started falling they had a few shots at permit, catching 2 and losing 2 to sharks, as well as 3 cobia, and several goliath groupers.

8/4/12 Permit fishing in Islamorada

Permit fishing in Islamorada has been great on the wrecks back in the gulf as of late.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished with Lee and Mike Corson yesterday evening and today.  Last night we snuck out after the squalls came through to tarpon fish.  They each got tarpon, one 65 lb and one 80 lbs, as well as a lemon shark and a nurse shark.  This was all on dead bait, we tried drifting crabs at dark with the last of the falling tide, however the wind was NNE and the tarpon were not very happy or active, but not a bad night.  Today we ventured out deep into the gulf of mexico for this august fishing in islamorada.  We stopped on the way and caught plenty of ladyfish for some goliath bait, as well as some trout and snappers.  We then headed to the wrecks, and it was game on when we got there.  There was a slight breeze which was nice, permit were schooled up thick around the boat.  Immediatly we hooked up, they were eating shrimp the best.  We tried throwing crabs but they only wanted shrimp, and even caught some on bare jigs.   Lee hooked and caught a nice 40 lb tarpon we caught on a pinfish, we saw some rolling and pitched it to him and he exploded on the bait right away!  We also got the goliaths going, and caught about 6 of those, including one that was likely 350 lbs.  We had to manuever carefully around the boat to finally get that one in!  Had one cobia swim up, he was not interested in eating much though.  All in all we caught about 15 permit, it was a fabulous day.  The boys were wore out so we left early and were back at the dock a little after 1 PM!  This next week the tides are ideal out there, if the wind stays fairly calm, give Bud n' Mary's a call!  Also good tides for night tarpon fishing in islamorada!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
rick@seethefloridakeys.net

 

7/28/12 Fishing the gulf of mexico

Capt. Rick Stanczyk had Bob Davidson and crew out for a day of fishing the gulf of mexico on 7/28/12.  We started off some of the banks that line the edge of everglades national park and the gulf.  The bite was hot with a mix of big ladyfish, sea trout, mangrove snappers, and jack crevelle.  We loaded up on fish for dinner, as well as more for bait for larger specimen.  We then headed to try to find some goliaths we had some action with the prior day, however another boat was fishing it, so we headed back west into the open gulf.  We had one of wrecks to our selves and the fish were there!  We had the last of the incoming tide.  Big schools of permit in every direction, great permit fishing in islamorada.  We caught about 8 total on shrimp and even bare jigs!  We tried pitching the one crab we had to some of the larger ones, though they did not appear interested.  After the tide started to fall we anchored up, and chunked up some ladyfish and caught 6 big goliath groupers up to 200 lbs!  Bob also got a nice 75 lb bull shark.  We also managed one cobia to the boat, and had one other small 4 pack follow a goliath up and disappear.  Great action and love to see it this time of year!

Capt. Bill Bassett also fished in the backcountry today and reported good action.  They caught plenty of trout and ladyfish in the bays.  They found lots of tarpon around some islands and had a couple in the air!  They also poled around a bit later and caught several redfish, after that they headed in a little earlier to beat the heat!

7/9/12 Florida Keys Fishing in July

Had Morgan and Julie out for a full day on 7/9/12 fishing in islamorada.  We went back into the gulf to try and catch some goliaths.  Action fishing was good early on, first two baits in the water we hooked double header permit on the light rods.  Very fun on the smaller tackle!  We then started to catch some nice size jacks and a mix of mangrove snappers, plus a couple of larger look-downs.  Lightning and thunder storms were around so we started to chunk some jacks and put the baits on the bottom.  We caught 2 out of 3 goliaths, up to about 80-90 lbs or so.  Morgan also caught a large bull shark.  Storms never made it to us, but the action slowed down and the weeds got very bad.  We saw some schooling tarpon rolling around us, and jumped one on a light rod.  Islamorada tarpon fishing has been picking up a little here late in the summer, with some fish showing up off the cape area in the day time, but you have to hit them early!  We ran back inside off the cape and tried fishing some markers, caught a handful of trout and snappers, and a blacktip shark.  Called it a day after that and headed home!  Still some good florida keys fishing to be had here in July!

5/29/12 Night tarpon fishing in Islamorada

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished with his father, Andy Newman, and Bill Reed of the National Hurricane Center last night on 5/29/12 for some night tarpon fishing in Islamorada.  Bill is retiring from the hurricane center this year.  We did some evening fishing as the bite the last several nights seems to have been better at sunset and after dark.  We jumped one fish early down near Channel 2 bridge tarpon fishing right around sunset.  We then drifted further back in the bay, hearing many fish roll and bust around us but no action.  The wind had died out flat making things a little tougher.  We motored up for another drift, and as soon as we put our baits out, we hooked a very nice fish.  I handed Bill the Rod and he started the battle!  It zipped around back and forther quite a bit, and then ran straight at the boat going underneath but we managed to swing the rod around and keep him on.  As we got the fish to the boat and in the light, my suspicions were correct - a nice big permit!  A very nice surprise while fishing for tarpon as we don't catch a whole lot of them while doing this with the larger tackle and crabs that we use!  We then ran back towards home and fished some of the channels close to Bud n' Mary's, and first drift Andy hooked a nice 80 lb tarpon which we landed and then came home!  Capt. Bill Bassett reported getting a couple bites in the normal morning hours 7-11 on crabs and pinfish.  Capt. Jim Willcox also has some tarpon action out in the fishing the gulf of mexico on the flat calm days the last couple of days.