5/13/11 + 5/14/11 Some redfish action and some big monsters in the back!

Capt Jim Willcox on 5/13/11, over 100 redfish with Eric & Jack from west coast Florida plus a limit of large snappers! 27 double headers!!!The tarpon did elude us at the end of the day!  Also Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished today on 5/14/11 in the back... caught plenty of snappers for dinner, ladyfish, and some trout.  They put the big rods out in hopes of tarpon, saw plenty rolling but they weren't biting.  Did catch a nice blacktip, big 300 lb goliath grouper, and a 2 out of 3 'sea monsters' that were several hundred pounds!!!  The tarpon did bite last night though, but they are getting a little funny as we approach the full moon!

3/15/11 Fishing the everglades! And fishing Islamorada!

Capt. Jim Willcox fished a full day in the everglades today and had another good day catching a few nice snook.  They also caught plenty of redfish, trout, ladyfish, and some big black drum.  Hopefully this is a sign the snook fishing will be picking up for the rest of the year!  Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished two half days today, there was a big mud close to home with plenty of trout, ladyfish, jacks, and some sharks in it.  Also fished for some tarpon nearby at the end of the day, saw quite a few rolling around but no bites.  Every guide at Bud n' Mary's is booked tomorrow, so hopefully there will be plenty of good fish stories to tell!!!

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!

2/16/11 Nice reds, and a big ol' gator!

Capt Jim Willcox fished with Scott Beattie today who's been Staying at Bud & Mary's this week. Day one , the coldest Scott caught at least 40 redfish with Vinnie Biondelletti, day two he went offshore with Joey Hendrix & caught over a dozen Blackfin Tuna & 2 sailfish. Day three with Capt. Jim we caught some large trout,sheepshead, a big black drum, a big redfish & lots of smaller drum & reds.  To top it off we got hissed & growled at by this large croc before he jumped in!!! Quite a week for Scott!!!  Disregard the title this was a croc, not a gator!

2/15/11 Reds and snooks in the back!

Capt Jim Willcox fished with Wayne Lacroix from Ontario & Jim Bernardin from Pine & Palms. We went deep in the everglades, lots of big trout,sheepshead,black drum,red drum & finished the day with 2 lunker snook!!!