3/4/12 Islamorada bonefish report

Well we had pre-frontal conditions here today on 3/4/12, strong winds out of the SW blowing 20 mph.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk decided to stay close to home and try some bonefishing in islamorada.  The overcast skies, strong winds, and incoming front gave us pretty good stake-up conditions.  We staked up over some potholes and fished the morning in-tide.  Ended up catching 3 nice bones, between 7 and 10 lbs.  Also caught 3 bonnethead sharks and a sting ray.  The first 2 hours were great with overcast skies, when things cleared up and the tide changed though, things slowed down, but still ended up with a great half day.  Remember the nice thing about fishing the backcountry in islamorada is you can pretty much always squeek your day in somehow!  Until our next islamorada bonefish report!  It's suppose to get cold tonight and winds swinging around to northwest/north, hopefully the bay won't be too bad tomorrow!

3/1/12 Islamorada night tarpon fishing and backcountry redfish

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished with Dave and Frank the last 4 days, ending on 3/1/12 for some islamorada night tarpon fishing and florida keys backcountry redfish charters.  The main focus was tarpon as both guys wanted to catch one, day one and two fishing was tough the high winds had stirred much of the bays and backcountry up.  We were able to catch plenty of ladyfish, jacks, some snappers and nice trout.  We saved the ladies for bait and fished them around several different channels back there.  First day we caught several small blacktip sharks and a couple big ones that did put on a show at least, day two we caught nothing but small ones and did have a couple tarpon bites that wouldn't stay on there.  Current was very weak everywhere as well making it tough for the bait scent to get out there, and to encourage the fish to feed.  Day 3 we decided to do the early morning night fishing.  We left at 3 am with some crabs and pinfish and did some islamorada bridge fishing.  First couple spots were very weedy, we eventually moved to another bridge, and Dave hooked a nice 100 lb fish that went nuts!  We fought him for almost an hour, boating him and releasing him unharmed.  Daylight was upon us now, saw several fish in the area rolling, but no more bites.  Called it a day after that, and put a long day in our last day.  Left at 3 again, fished the bridges close to home since the wind was howling a bit more, and did pretty well.  Two bites and caught 1 fish for Frank in our first 2 drifts, of about 65 lbs.  No more action as the tied died, so we anchored near the bridge, as soon as the tide started going out, another one stole a crab.  A few minutes later and Frank was hooked up catching tarpon in islamorada, very strange bite he swam right at us and did not jump until the very end.  Caught him as it started to get light, nice 80 lb fish, and then headed into the backcountry for the rest of the day.  Fished a couple islands and had a good bite of redfish, we poled around hitting several trees, picking a few fish here and there.  Got in to a couple good holes that had 6-8 fish a piece, including a few large slot and even a couple over the slot fish!  All in all a great trip for these fellows who stayed right at Bud n' Mary's. Things started off tough but we made adjustments to put 'em on some fish!

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

2/24/12 Great backcountry fishing for big fish!

Today we had the wind out of the south again though not blowing too hard about 10 mph.  Capt. Jim Willcox and Capt. Rick Stanczyk were both fishing out on the edge of the gulf in everglades national park for this trip fishing islamorada in february.  Both reported good catches of big trout in the bays with a mix of ladyfish, snappers, jacks, and occasionally other fish as well!  After that both fished some of the channels in the area.  Capt. Willcox caught this monster tarpon!  Many of the fish back there now are very large mostly 100+ lbs!  Capt. Stanczyk caught this 'mud marlin' that was close to 200 lbs!  They also caught a 15 lb cobia that was following him, unfortunately they didn't have a gaff and he jumped out of the net.  After that fight with the sea monster, the anglers had enough big stuff.  So they hit some shallow spots for some redfish since they were about at the bottom of the falling tide.  They had some luck catching about 10 redfish up to 8 lbs, and a mix of trout in there as well as a few on fly!  They ran back up to the east along the mainland since they wanted to see some more of the everglades, and ended up catching a nice snook on artifcial GULP bait, and a couple more reds around some islands.  Great way to end a fantastic day of florida keys fishing charters!  Capt. Ken Cohan also reported an encounter with a seamonster and a cobia.  Florida keys tarpon fishing is starting now, come down and get in on the action!

2/19/12 Backcountry fishing florida keys february.

Well the wind kicked up out of the southwest this morning and by the end of the day was howling for islamorada fishing in february.  This really churned up the water in a lot of the backcountry.  We weren't able to do anything on the edge of the gulf or back at the cape, so stuck around flamingo.  Caught plenty of ladyfish and trout in several spots.  Shark fished for a while and caught a nice 80 lb blacktip.  Saw a few tarpon rolling but they were not biting.  As the tide died we moved, lots more trout and ladyfish and a few pompano and jacks.  Water was incoming now and we decided to try some redfish spots.  Hit the right spot first and spent our last hour catching about a dozen reds, several slot size fish 20+ inches.  Also caught a big black drum and a smaller one, and a sting ray.  Good finish to the day.  Capt. Bob Reineman reported catching several redfish poling and casting.  Capt. Jim Willcox reported some good action with snappers, trout, and ladyfish, and lots of small blacktips and a big 100 lber further out west for his day of february florida keys fishing.  -- Capt. Rick Stanczyk

2/14/12 + 2/15/12 Post cold front Islamorada backcountry fishing report!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished the last few days after our recent cold front in the Florida Keys backcountry, from west of flamingo out around the cape area and further northwest.  It's quite a run for an islamorada fishing charter taking over an hour to get to.  The recent front we had chilled the water down considerably, but pushed many fish out from the gulf and further up north into some of the creeks and canals in search of deeper warmer water.  On 2/14/12 I fished Nilson and his wife from Sweden.  We caught 10 snook and lost a couple nicer ones.  Lots of redfish too about 2 dozen, and even caught a baby goliath grouper which I have not seen any of those since the cold snap of 2010 that killed them off along with many of the snook.  We ended the day catching trout on artificial GULPs.  Today I fished the Levor's who have fished out of Bud n' Mary's for many years, mostly with Capt. Paul Ross on the Relentless.  We did the same thing, but today the snook were much bigger!  We caught 5, some nice fish 10 lbs and a little over, lots of fun on light spin.  Had almost 2 hours of incoming tide today, whereas yesterday we didn't have any, arriving at roughly the same time.  We last about 5 others that we pulled hooks on, cut lines on, and lost in the trees.  But that's snook fishing!  The bait of choice was a large horn hooked shrimp, though the big ones are scarce.  We also caught a couple off of pinfish on the bottom.  We caught several redfish as well, and a small lemon shark.  Had a big 200 lb lemon inside one creek eat one of our reds, and pulled another one away from him before he got it.  Got some decent slot size fish today and saved a couple for dinner.  Caught a flounder as well, plus several mangrove snappers and jacks in another creek, and again ended the day with some trout.  Great news for our Islamorada flats fishing. 

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

Capt. Paul Ross had several nice mutton snappers up to 15 lbs today as well on the offshore side!