1/30/11 - Backcountry variety day! Big Black drum, reds, trout, snappers, and more!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk had Richard Arluck and his family out, Mike and Dave, today on Saturday 1/30/11.  They were visiting down from Miami and wanted some action and good stuff to eat!  They headed back towards the cape area around 8:00 and arrived around 9:30.  The tide had just stopped falling and they fished a deep area around the shoreline.  Soon as the tide started trickling in, they were catching plenty of black drum, sheepshead, redfish, ladyfish, even a couple trout and pompano!  Shrimp on jigs did the trick, and it was bites on every cast for a while!  Good action there for a couple of hours!  Once the tide started really ripping and some poirposes showed up, they decided to take a break and eat lunch.  After that they headed out towards the edge of the gulf off sprigger bank and snapper fished in some holes.  It took some looking around, but eventually they got into them real thick and caught plenty of keepers, as well as some small groupers which they released.  The weather as absolutely gorgeous this afternoon, light winds and the sun with cool air - just right!!!  Tons of action and probably caught 15 different species of fish!

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

1/25/11 WINDY day, but good fishing!

Well the wind was howling out of the east all day today 25mph or better for our florida keys fishing trips!  But the backcountry was fishable and when you got in the runoffs and canals it was pretty nice!  Capt. Rick Stanczyk, Capt. Jim Willcox, Capt. Jeff Beeler, and Capt. Skip Nielsen all reported double-digit redfish!  They all also caught some trout and ladyfish as well.  Capt. Skip also fished for mackerel and caught quite a few of those, and had a couple big spinner sharks as well, and did report getting once nice red that was 12 pounds!  Capt. Rick Stanczyk reported catching half a dozen large black drum also, and some snappers for dinner for his clients as well.  Fishing in Islamorada is still happening even with the crazy wind!!!

Capt. Skip Nielsen's full report from the past two days was... Bernard and Paul Pielow of Liverpool, UK fished with capt. skip nielsen 2 days this week. First day was offshore. We caught some nice sized Barracuda on light tackle and kept a couple for shark bait. During the afternoon after some very hard work Bernard released 2 Bull Sharks in the 300lb class. Paul Pielow caught a King Mackerel that weighed 35lbs. nice going on the big Bull Shark and King Macks.
On day two we fished the backcountry. For starters we caught 20 Spanish Mackerel then moved further northwest near Sandy Key and got into a hot bite of Redfish. Bernard released a red estimated at 12lbs. Over 30 were released before moving to the Flamingo area where a couple big Spinner Sharks were jumped and lost. Pompano,Trout and Ladyfish finished the day for the boys. Great fishing for a windy day.

1/24/11 - Reds, trout, and ladies - eating the fly!

Capt Jim Willcox fished with Kim, Andreas, & Rasmus from Denmark today. They caught multiple trout, reds, pompano, & lady fish, all on bait & on fly. The highlight of the day was Rasmus's first red on fly!  Capt. Rick Stanczyk also reported catching many reds, trout, ladyfish, and a mackerel and bluefish on his half day!

1/21/11 + 1/22/11 Backcountry and gulfside half days!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk had his regulars Lee and Rob down from the NJ area.  They were glad to get out of dodge leaving the cold weather and snow behind to come and visit to do some islamorada fishing.  We fished two half days, the first day we ran in the back and fished some ditches and runoffs, catching trout, ladyfish, some little pompano, and got into some thick redfish!  Rob caught some pompano on fly as well!  Lots of action and rod bending.  The next day we did something different, ran on the edge of the gulf and caught some mackerels. Got them going pretty good, caught some on fly again, and also put some out for some black tip sharks.  Got one to the boat and broke off a couple others, very fun and exciting watching them go airborne and spin like a torpedo!  It was Rob's first so he was very stoked!  We then hit a little wreck and caught some mangrove snappers for lunch for them before they headed back towards home!  They said they can't wait to come back and do it again hopefully later this year!!!

1/23/11 COLD slow morning, but the backcountry woke up!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk and Capt. Jim Willcox had Ed Forrester and his party in the backcountry for some florida keys fishing on 1/23/11.  It was a freezing cold morning being in the high 40s last night, and very windy.  We took the long, smoother ride back towards flamingo through some really low water.  We fished some deeper channels and creeks in the back and picked away at a handful of redfish, though having gotten cold so quick things were a little slow early.  Roy on Capt. Ricks boat did catch a nice 15 lb snook with a shrimp on the bottom though which was a real exciting fish to see as there population has still been hurt since the last cold winter we had in 2010.  We decided to run back around some runoffs in some other channels closer to home around noon when it started to warm up, and we really got into the reds then!  Each boat probably caught close to 50 a piece!  Tried fishing the edges of some of the banks, and not much but catfish, and a couple pompano.  After that we headed back to Islamorada!  Capt. Vinne Biondoletti reported similar fishing in the A.M., though fished a different area in the afternoon and did catch a lot of ladyfish and pompano.  Capt. Alex Adler on the Kalex had a nice catch of snappers and some nice cobias as well up to 40 lbs!

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