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

 

2/15/13 Pre february cold front backcountry fishing report

Well looks like we have (hopefully) our last cold front of the year coming over the weekend.  Today on 2/15/13 there was lots of moisture in the air and some scattered rain, you could also feel the cooler air pushing down with the north/northeast winds in the backcountry fishing islamorada february.  We fished a bit west of flamingo and out around the cape this morning.  Picked a handful of nice 22-24 inch redfish off a few spots.  Also got a nice juvenile tarpon which was cool as my anglers wanted to catch one.  We also lost a snook at the boat and caught plenty of snappers and jacks.  Later bugs got bad in the next spot, so we went in the gulf to check it out.  Hooked one cobia on the wreck which we pulled the hook on, and caught a big sting ray fishing the gulf in islamorada.  On the way back found the tripletails floating and caught probably 8 or those, only one nice keeper though but they were lots of fun!  We ended the day with a handful of trout in some runoffs again, not a bad way to spend the day fishing islamorada in february.  Capt. Dave Sisung fished closer to Islamorada, they had a mixed bag and got a couple nice sharks too, as well as this nice redfish to end the day.  Capt. Bill Bassett found caught a few redfish polingand said they saw many more, plus caught fish for dinner including trout and mangrove snappers.  Capt. Mike Bassett reported some redfish, black drum, trout, and a snook back around mainland florida as well.  Great news on this islamorada fishing report.  This cold front should only last a couple days and hopefully a few days after that things will warm right back up.  Tarpon have been around we saw several again on the way home near Bud n' Mary's, and Capt. Vic Gaspeny did report catching some in the early morning hours before daylight.  The islamorada fishing forecast will be calling for tarpon, tarpon, tarpon as we enter the spring!

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

2/1/13 Another cold front but still good keys backcountry fishing!

Well yesterday afternoon another cold front hit us here for our first february florida keys fishing day, and looks to be chilly for another couple of days.  It was blowing hard 20-25mph out of the north/northeast this morning making for a chilly/bumpy ride into the backcountry but several guides made the journey.  It proved to be a pretty decent day fishing the backcountry of islamorada.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk reported a good mix of redfish, black drum, sheepshead, trout, and snapper at east and middle cape.  They also caught some nice trout and a baby goliath grouper on the way home.  The waters were very low in the backcountry with the hard north wind which should hold through tomorrow.  Capt. Bill Bassett had part of the same party, they stuck in east cape and poled some of the shallow runoffs, also catching a mix of redfish, black drum, and even a handful of snook.  Remember Bud n' Mary's can accommodate islamorada group fishing parties of several dozen people!  Capt. Perry Scuderi reported a similar bite.  Capt. Dave Sisung stayed closer to home, they got this nice snook as well nearby february islamorada fishing.  So if your wondering yes there was some good fishing today if you could brave the ride, always options here when backcountry fishing florida keys!

1/29/13 Great florida keys backcountry fishing despite high winds!

Well the wind was howling today on 1/29/13 inshore fishing islamorada.  The southeasterly winds were warm though and not too bad riding into the backcountry anyways.  We decided to run around the corner of cape sable as that area is fairly protected on this wind.  My assumption proved right and the water was much more 'fishy looking' than around other areas we ran by.  had falling tide most of the morning, tried to jump in a creek where we had done well several days ago, but the bugs almost carried us away so we had to leave right away.  This proved to be a good thing though, as we moved out to more open water on the outside shoreline to try some islamorada backcountry snook fishing.  The islamorada backcountry fishing for snook has been off and on as of late, but we found some nice ones this morning.  Simply casting shrimp on heavy jigs and slowly bumping them along the shoreline sandbars and such worked for us, we caught 3 nice fish of 9-13 lbs in 45 minutes.  After this we tried to get back in the creeks again as the sun was up and wind had swung around a bit to give us a breeze in there, and luckily the bugs were gone.  We caught plenty of juvenile redfish and black drum florida keys flats fishing.  We continued working our way in the creek further, next stop some more redfish, sheepshead, and a whopper ~20 lb black drum!  This one dragged us down the creek and almost around a corner, but we gave chase and got him!  We hit one last spot and same thing, redfish and black drum, though we caught several nice big trout there as well.  The tide was about dead now, so we made our way back towards home.  Stopped in a channel for the last 45 minutes, and caught several trout, ladyfish, and jacks.  Capt. John Johnansen and Capt. Perry Scuderi stuck in the channel areas and reported good action fishing for trout, ladyfish, jacks, and such.  They also caught several black tip sharks.  Capt. John also caught a goliath grouper.  Lots of fun today florida keys flats fishing!

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

1/26/13 January Islamorada Backcountry Fishing Report

Had a gorgeous day here today january fishing islamorada.  Andy and his sons Derek and Conrad fished with me again on 1/26/13.  The wind blew but not too bad mostly out of the north/northeast.  Temperatures were chilly in the morning but nice after the sun was higher in the sky and we stopped running.  Caught the end of the falling tide back fishing cape sable.  Lots of redfish in the ditches and run-offs, today mostly little guys with a handful of nicer fish here and there.  Mostly caught jigging shrimp.  We also got some really nice big 20 lb black drum right off the bat, one we lost around a tree stump but one we caught right after on our islamorada fishing charter!  All these guys were eating shrimp on jigs, slowly twitched on the bottom.  We moved further in some of the creeks on the incoming tide and picked away at redfish, sheepshead, ladyfish, trout, jacks, and snapper.  Mid day we caught a handful of other fish along with a nice snook.  Backcountry islamorada fishing in the winter is lots of fun.  Capt. Jim Willcox and Capt. Mike Bassett reported similar fishing back at the cape including redfish and snook.  Capt. Willcox and Capt. John Johansen also did some trout fishing later in the afternoon and reported lots of nice big trout showing up in the ditches between islamorada and flamingo, which have been slim pickings the last month at least as far as the large ones go.  Great day here on the water flats fishing in the florida keys.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
rick@seethefloridakeys.net