9/11/12 Backcountry September Islamorada Fishing Report

Well the winds swung around from the west to out of the north this morning on 9/11/12, giving us some nice cooler air for most of the morning on today's september islamorada fishing charter.  Lots of rain last night as well over the mainland and cape area of the everglades, we dodge a bit throughout the day which pleasently cooled us off!  Had the Leon's down from Miami FL, father and son.  We started out on the edge of the gulf this morning, leaving early at 10 till 7 AM.  Trout, snapper, ladyfish, and jacks were biting non-stop.  Lots of decent size trout for dinner with some nice mangroves mixed in.  We did this for about half an hour, then decided to try some other stuff before it got too hot on this florida keys fishing september trip.  We then ran towards the cape and tried fishing in some of the finger creeks that go up inside.  Tide was still coming in, with plenty of high water to get around.  We ended up catching 2 snook, one decent one of about 6 lbs, all on big shrimp which were available due to the cooler weather the night before.  There were a handful of baby tarpon at the mouth of one of these canals too, though we did not get any bites out of them while trying to drift large shrimp back on corks.  We ran out and tried some spots in the near gulf for some different action.  We caught 2 large 'sea monsters,' one was likely 300 lbs - exciting stuff backcountry fishing in islamorada!  We also caught half a dozen cobias on pinfish, a couple were keeper size, though we only kept one as that's all we had room for!  We also jumped a 60 lb tarpon off, and saw plenty more rolling rolling around.  Then headed back towards flamingo fishing for some redfish while the water was still high enough to hit some shoreline spots.  We worked a few areas and finally got into some, catching about 10 in total with a few slot size fish, all of which we released.  Great stuff to write about for this september florida keys fishing report, hopefully things will continue to be good out there!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

9/4/12 September Islamorada Fishing in the backcountry

Islamorada fishing in September has started off great in the backcountry.  The water is still fairly cool from all the rain/wind of hurricane Isaac.  The water for the most parts in areas around flamingo is not too grassy and very fishable.  Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti a few days ago had a great day, fishing with Ron Taylor and family.  They caught 40 redfish up to 8 lbs, 6 snook, and a couple small tarpon.  He also fished yesterday with young Justin Block and father for some Islamorada flats fishing.  Justin caught his first bonefish in the morning.  They saw a fair number of others, as well as a few small tarpon and permit.  Capt. Bill Bassett this morning also reported good redfishing, catching 20 of them, as well as 2 snook and one small tarpon.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk reported good fishing around some islands fishing in the florida keys backcountry the last 2 days.  They caught plenty of mangrove snapper, abou t 15 snook each day, a small goliath grouper, and a few small redfish.  Most this fishing has been done with shrimp and on artificial GULP shrimps.  Fishing in Flamingo should stay decent especially if the water temps stay a little cooler, early morning will likely be your best bet to ensure that!

8/10/12 Backcountry fishing.. bonefish and action in the gulf

Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti reported this morning.. Had Jack ,Roman and chad out on a half day of fishing for tarpon and bone fish. After two hours of tarpon fishing in Islamorada with no luck we switched gears and went for bones. We saw several groups of fish and managed to catch a nice 7 pounder to end our day. Bone fishing remains steady for the patient fisherman.  Nice Islamorada bonefish!

Capt. Jim Willcox reported some good fishing in the florida keys backcountry with lots of trout and redfish action.  They also caught 2 nice cobias, some black tip sharks, and a couple of 'sea monsters' by mistake!  Capt. Rick Stanczyk also ventured out further into the gulf, reporting good trout/snapper/etc.. action early with a mix of mackerels too.  Once the tide started falling they had a few shots at permit, catching 2 and losing 2 to sharks, as well as 3 cobia, and several goliath groupers.

8/9/12 Big Snook for some young kids

Kurt fished with his 2 sons, Kylan (12) and Ian (9) with Capt. Mike Bassett.  They fished 2 days yesterday and today, 8/9/12.  in two days they caught 2 nice snook, 11 and 6 lb, a 30 lb bull shark, a 6 lb trout, lots of redfish, a black drum, sheeps head, and jacks and snappers to eat.  They were down from VA and had lots of fun!  Capt. Rick Stanczyk reported good fishing on the edge of the gulf today, with a mix of trout, snapper, ladyfish, spanish mackerel, and a couple pompano!  We then chunked them up in some hold and caught a couple big goliaths, 2 big sawfish, a lemon and black tip shark, and got rocked up by some other goliaths, fun day of rod bending!

8/4/12 Permit fishing in Islamorada

Permit fishing in Islamorada has been great on the wrecks back in the gulf as of late.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished with Lee and Mike Corson yesterday evening and today.  Last night we snuck out after the squalls came through to tarpon fish.  They each got tarpon, one 65 lb and one 80 lbs, as well as a lemon shark and a nurse shark.  This was all on dead bait, we tried drifting crabs at dark with the last of the falling tide, however the wind was NNE and the tarpon were not very happy or active, but not a bad night.  Today we ventured out deep into the gulf of mexico for this august fishing in islamorada.  We stopped on the way and caught plenty of ladyfish for some goliath bait, as well as some trout and snappers.  We then headed to the wrecks, and it was game on when we got there.  There was a slight breeze which was nice, permit were schooled up thick around the boat.  Immediatly we hooked up, they were eating shrimp the best.  We tried throwing crabs but they only wanted shrimp, and even caught some on bare jigs.   Lee hooked and caught a nice 40 lb tarpon we caught on a pinfish, we saw some rolling and pitched it to him and he exploded on the bait right away!  We also got the goliaths going, and caught about 6 of those, including one that was likely 350 lbs.  We had to manuever carefully around the boat to finally get that one in!  Had one cobia swim up, he was not interested in eating much though.  All in all we caught about 15 permit, it was a fabulous day.  The boys were wore out so we left early and were back at the dock a little after 1 PM!  This next week the tides are ideal out there, if the wind stays fairly calm, give Bud n' Mary's a call!  Also good tides for night tarpon fishing in islamorada!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
rick@seethefloridakeys.net