About Bud N' Mary's

Bud N' Mary's Fishing Marina is located in Islamorada, Florida, The Sportfishing Capital of The World!  It was established in 1944, and over the years has been one of the most famous sportfishing destinations in the world!  It is home to over 40 of the finest offshore captains and backcountry guides.  We also have a spectacular party fishing boat, the Miss Islamorada.  There is also a great dive shop, boat rentals, motel, boat storage, transient dockage, and tackle store.  We will be posting fishing related events, catches, media publications, and overall news concerning Bud N' Mary's here, so keep tuned in!  You can contact Bud N' Mary's at 1-800-742-7945 or e-mail us:
bnmfm@budnmarys.com.

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Welcome to our Florida Keys Fishing Reports section.  Here we will be posting all the catch reports both offshore and backcountry around Islamorada and the Florida Keys.  Remember all captains can be booked through Bud N' Mary's Florida Keys Fishing Charters by calling 1-800-742-7945Islamorada Fishing Reports vary year round, so check back often! Thanks!

Check out our YouTube channel, updated regularly: Bud n' Mary's Marina  

To see older fishing reports, scroll to the bottom and click the page numbers!

P.S. You can also read Capt. Rick Stanczyks updated fishing reports here or tarpon reports here (during season).

Entries in pompano (21)

Saturday
Oct082011

10/8/11 Some nasty weather, but great everglades fishing action!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk and Capt. Mike Bassett fished some of Rick's regulars down from NJ, Lee & Rob & Company for a florida keys charter.  The radar looked like lots of rain around so we waited to leave and made it over to the flamingo everglades area with no problem, decided to stick to just half a day due to weather concerns.  Stopped at our first spot, had the last of the falling tide for a good 1.5 hours and fishing was excellent!  Lots of snappers for dinner, a few nice big black drum, a nice slot red, one small snook and jumped another one off, and some big jacks!  Had a large bullshark eat a couple other fish, possibly nice reds or jacks.  Shrimp with jigs did the trick, throwing them up current and letting them sink along the edges of the banks and trees.  As the tide died at our spot everglades fishing islamorada we ran back towards home and hit a mud real quick.  A few trout and ladyfish in there, and one pompano too!  We stopped in one more area to try and get a few more snappers and the rain started to get us, and continued all the way home.  Totally worth it for these guys though, they always have a great time fishing at Bud n' Mary's!  Also nice to see a few of our winter time species starting to show up such as the pompano and black drum.

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

Thursday
Mar242011

3/24/11 West wind can be trouble, though turned out alright today!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished Larry and Sherri Kasperek today for a 3/4 day of florida keys fishing!  We headed out back into the everglades around 7:30 am and it was an absolutely gorgeous day - almost flat calm with a slight breeze out of the west.  This is usually not ideal for fishing in our area, though today it didn't seem to bother things much.  We caught plenty of trout, several nice ones in the 17-20 inch range.  Plus lots of big ladyfish which were jumping all over, a few snappers, mackerel, and a pompano - good mix of fish for drifting around randomly in the bay!  They wanted to catch something big like a shark too, so I headed over to one of my favorite spots nearby and put the big rods out with some dead baits on the bottom.  A couple other boats were anchored nearby, Capt. Jim Willcox and Capt. Jeff Beeler.  Last week I had gotten a bad batch of circle hooks, straightened the circle hooks on two tarpon in a row with my anglers doing everything right! Also straightened one out on a big 'sea monster' that was locked on the bottom after only pulling on him for about 10 minutes, so I know it had to be the hooks.  So we went old school with a traditional J-hook as I've second guessed myself out of using them!  Not much action at first, Capt. Jim had hooked a few small blacktips that he caught, then we had something big grab the bait and start swimming across the stern.  I locked it up and reeled the line tight and handed the rod to Sherri.  Then a big 100 lb tarpon came blasting out of the water, jumping 4 or 5 times behind the boat.  I had Sherri point the rod at the fish to keep from pulling the hook and she did a great job, we tossed our anchor ball and raced after him.  He jumped himself out and we caught up with him, snapping a few pictures and releasing him for another day unharmed!  Sherri said it was the biggest fish she ever caught and one of the most exciting things she'd ever done!  We fished the last hour there without much of anything happening, Capt. Jeff hooked and caught a larger blacktip near us.  Then the other guys headed to another spot and we made our way home as the tide was starting to die and it was time to head in anyways.  Well another successful day with some florida tarpon fishing!

Thursday
Mar172011

3/17/11 HOT action islamorada tarpon fishing and sharks!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished Todd Belinger and his son today for some great florida keys fishing in Islamorada on March 17, 2011!  We left out early around 7:15 right before the sun starting rising.  We stopped in the back where I've been having luck lately near flamingo and caught plenty of trout, ladyfish, jacks, and a few pompano on the last of the falling tide back there.  Put a big rod out while doing so and caught a few sharks there too.  Once the tide died we moved further up the channel and waited for it to come in.  We caught several more sharks there and had one tarpon bite we missed, then hooked about a 60 lber we landed!  After the the weeds start really rolling through so we moved on a little further out towards the gulf of mexico and fished another deep channel.  Plenty of small blacktips in there we probably caught another 6 of those in there, and another larger 80 lb tarpon right off the bat!  Then we hooked a 150 lb hammerhead that we fought for about 30 minutes and got him up for a picture alongside the boat!  The waters back to normal and getting warmer as we get into spring, the tarpon are getting happier and soon it will be full on!  Florida Tarpon Fishing is spectacular here in Islamorada!


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

Thursday
Mar102011

3/10/11 Cold front coming means... great fishing!

Capt. Jim Willcox and Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished a 3/4 day this morning due to the cold front coming today.  The sky turned black and winds were extremely nasty by 12:30 or so.  We had our british group from the UK down and a couple of the guys fancied catching a bonefish, and with the front coming in that was ideal conditions to try some stake up fishing.  Capt. Jim put them on 3 bones this morning, here's a picture of a nice 7 lber!  Part of Capt. Rick's crew wanted to catch a tarpon in a bad way so we ran back into the everglades for that.  Fishing was very good early, caught 1 out of 3 tarpon bites we had, possibly 4, plus a few blacktip sharks and a big nurse shark!  We also caught plenty of trout, ladyfish, jacks while doing so and a few pompano too!

Sunday
Mar062011

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!