2/25/13 Backcountry fishing in the Florida Keys Report

Had a good day today in the backcountry florida keys fishing.  We ran out to some channels in search of some big fish in the backcountry and gulf waters.  Had a few hours of falling tide this morning, we started out catching a variety of ladyfish, trout, and some nice pompano.  Saving the ladyfish for live and dead bait.  Saw a handful of tarpon in islamorada rolling so we put some baits out.  Caught a couple blacktips and did have a tarpon bust a live ladyfish however he missed it and didn't come back for seconds!  After the tide quit and we had enough bait we hit some shallow runoffs for some trout where the tide was still trickling out.  Caught a handful and made a few throws with the net in hopes of mullet, however only came up with one.  We went out a little further towards the gulf and set up for some february shark fishing in islamorada with hopes of getting lucky and maybe snagging a tarpon.  Lots of action with smaller blacktips, and hooked a monster 'mud marlin.'  He had a nice companion following along with him, a 45 lb cobia!  We hooked him up and took a break with the sea monster and focused on the cobia... after a 25 minute battle on light spin tackle he was ours!  We then went back to the big rod and fought him for another 30 minutes and finally got a good look at him before he rolled over and cut us off.  Ran back to our spot with an hour or so left to fish and within a few minutes hooked up this nice 100 lb hammerhead shark!  After that saw a few more tarpon busting and a couple rolling around, however not our day for them, but all in all still a fantastic day fishing islamorada in february!  Capt. John Johansen and Capt. Bill Bassett both reported good rod bending action with ladyfish, trout, etc... and also had lots of action with the blacktip sharks in the backcountry.  Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti reported several hook ups the day before fishing some rock piles on the ocean side when it was flat calm for permit.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

2/20/13 Half Day Backcountry Fishing Islamorada

Well season has kicked off with a bang here in islamorada, florida keys.  Just about everything that floats has been on the water this week, I myself have had double half days most every day, so you know the people are in town!  Fishing in the backcountry of Islamorada had started a little slow this week as we had a late cold front which was the coldest it got all winter.  Some of the backcountry waters got into the high 50s... brrrr!  Today it got back up to 70 or so which is good news for fishermen!  Yesterday we managed to catch some snappers for dinner on our half day trips, plus plenty of blue runners for some rod bending action, and got into a mess of ladyfish and a few trout in the afternoon as well.  Today we found lots of pompano this morning and caught about 15 or so on a half day islamorada fishing charter.  Also plenty of trout and big ladyfish.  This afternoon we did a similar game plan, no pompano but probalby caught close to 50 trout, plus a few ladyfish and jacks.  On full day trips, there has been some fish around east cape - redfish, black drum, snook, and trout... not red hot fishing but a good pick of fish, and some decent size ones as well.  Today Capt. Bill Bassett and Capt. Mike Bassett reported good fishing in the gulf of mexico in Islamorada.  Mike got some mackerel in the morning, some tripletails, and 3 snook in the afternoon.  Bill reported several nice big tripletail they kept for dinner.  Well we are getting towards the tail end of february fishing in islamorada and hopefully the last cold front of this winter season... wouldn't suprise me if the tarpon start to go off here in the next few days!

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

 

1/24/13 Winter fishing islamorada backcountry in January!

Well it cooled down a bit again as we had another small cold front pass through the last couple days.  Today on 1/24/13 it was a chilly ride into the islamorada backcountry fishing.  Many guides repoted having to wear jackets and long pants all day so remember to bring them!  Capt. Mike Bassett reported good fishing back around the cape area of the mainland.  He had some fellows from Minnesotta down staying at Bud n Marys and happy to be out of the cold weather back home!  They got into redfish, black drum, trout, and snook.  Fishing mostly the deeper runoffs and plugs slow jigging shrimp.  January islamorada fishing is often good in those areas!  Capt. Jeff Beeler reported some trout, ladyfish, jacks, etc... out west on the edge of the gulf, kind of a slower pick, but they also caught some sharks as well at the end of the falling tide as things warmed up a bit and the sun radiated.  Islamorada shark fishing can be done all year long as you can see, though is often tougher when the water is colder.  Capt. Bob Reineman had some good islamorada flats fishing for redfish, they poled and blind casted and caught 30 or so on bucktails.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished a later afternoon half and we got into a pretty solid bit of trout, ladyfish, jacks, pompano, and even a few spanish mackerel mixed in.  One real nice size trout as well as big ladyfish, the rest were mostly throwbacks but fun to bend the rod on.  We also picked a handful of redfish around one of the islands before heading home this afternoon.  The weather should be decent the next few days but still a little chilly, so go out for some great january florida keys fishing!

3/10/12 Spring time monsters of Islamorada

Well after a long week of high winds which is typical of March, we finally had a little calmer day today on 3/10/12.  Almost every boat was out today at Bud n' Mary's Marina, it's very busy and everyone is happy about that!  Fishing Islamorada in March has been tricky as the high winds have left the backcountry very stirred up, lots and lots of weed everywhere you go.  Winds were down but not gone, started this morning out of the north with some scattered showers around most people avoided.  By afternoon it swung around to the east and was blowing steady 15 mph again, still not too bad.  Most everyone did some drifting in the bays and muds in the backcountry.  Trout fishing was fair for most, not a red hot bite but most fish were keeper size.  A handful of ladyfish mixed in but most guys had to really run around to find any of those.  There were some keeper size mangrove snappers also out on the edge of the gulf for some good table fare.  We had several multi-boat group trips in the islamorada backcountry today, and all did plenty of rod bending and caught big fish.  Remember if you have a group charter, with Bud n' Mary's every captain and guide is at one dock, you can get your breakfast/lunch and drinks to go.  There is no calling multiple captains, wondering if one will not show or any miscommunication of what's going on.  We all get along and can work together to produce fish for everyone!  Capt. Rick Stanczyk had a slow start, but ended up catching 2 nice tarpon of 75 and 120 lbs plus several smaller blacktip sharks.  Capt. Jim Willcox caught some blacktips and lemon sharks, as well as a 250 lb goliath grouper that was 6 ft. long in one of the backcountry channels.  Capt. Clyde Upchurch had a large mud marlin and also caught a cobia off of him.  Capt. Perry Scuderi reported getting the leader on a 50 lb tarpon before he jumped off, and also reported a decent bite of pompano in a mud close to home.  Capt. Bill Bassett reported lots of sharks, from blacktips to lemons and bulls.  As you can see in the tarpon picture below, once the in tide got going the weed made it almost unfishable, hopefully it will clear up soon!  Islamorada tarpon fishing in March has been tricky, fish are around but conditions are not ideal.  On the islamorada deep sea fishing side both the BNM and Finnster reported some nice big amberjacks.  9 yar old Q caught a 76 lb amberjack with Capt. Nick Stanczyk on BNM.  Relentless had a couple sailfish, Reel McCoy ahd one sail, most boats had plenty of yellowtail on the reef, and Catch 22 had a pair of cobia up to 40 lbs.  Islamorada reef fishing has been steady and the yellowtails have been fairly big, lots of flags!

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!