5/21/12 Flats fishing in Islamorada

Been very busy here as of 5/21/12 and lots of rain around so have not been taking pictures and keeping up with reports - sorry guys!  Last week I had Kenny Johnston here flats fishing in Islamorada from across the pond.  We fished two full days in the islamorada backcountry fishing.  Day 1 we started around flamingo.  We got into a decent snook bite catching 10 or so snook up to 8 lbs, lost the first 1 which was a nice fish likely over 10 lbs into the trees.  Lucky for the fish as a large bull shark was after him!  We also caught a couple redfish there and off one other tree nearby, as well as lots of mangrove snappers.  The wind kicked up so we made our way back towards Islamorada and found a nice trout mud on the way home.  Plenty of trout with several slot size fish mixed in.  A big mullet mud was on a flat nearby so we caught a few live mullets and decided to give the tarpon a shot near home for the last hour.  We caught a couple small sharks early, and put our last mullet out on the bottom.  I reeled up the bait to check it after 15 minutes, put it back out, and within a minute the line zipped off and a nice 60 lb tarpon was airborne and hooked!  Kenny caught him in about 30 minutes to complete his backcountry slam for the day!  Great to catch an afternoon tarpon in islamorada!  Day 2 we ran back towards the cape area and found a nice school of redfish up on the flats.  We caught probably 15 of those, then loaded up with ladyfish in one of the nearby channels.  We caught a small shark nearby, and then kept heading back towards the cape.  Kenny wanted something big so we put the ladyfish on the bottom in one of the channels.  Caught 2 mud marlin, one small one of 40 lbs, and another that was likely 200-250 lbs!  Great options here fishing in the florida keys!  Capt. Jim Willcox also reported getting a backcountry slam - snook, reds, and a tarpon, running deep into the glades off the northwest cape.  Capt. Jeff Beeler did well on the redfish with myself in a group trip several days ago as well as some shots at tarpon early in the morning, some nice trout and snappers, and a shark.  Capt. Mike Bassett got a couple tarpon in the afternoon the other day as well on live mullets drifting the oceanside bridges.  Capt. Dave Butler also snuck out after the rain the other day and caught a big tarpon as well as a couple redfish!

As of late the tarpon fishing here has been picking up a bit, a lot of fish around locally however still not many in the backcountry.  The evening trips have been giving more shots at fish, some have been eating crabs as well.  We had bites on crabs early in the evening the last 2 nights, as well as mullet.  We do have falling tides here till near dark this next week, so the fishing will hopefully be good the next several evenings!  Get ou there on a night tarpon fishing islamorada trip!

5/3/12 Florida Keys Backcountry Fishing Report

Well the rain has finally cleared and we had some pretty weather today although it was still pretty breezy!  Much of the water in the backcountry is still very churned up from the hard winds we had the past few days, that should settle and by the weekend it is suppose to be nice and calm.  The past few days Capt. Rick Stanczyk has been running far near the mainland of south florida in the everglades backcountry fishing.  The mud marlin have been biting consistently, we caught 2 the day before yesterday and 1 today.  Today we also caught several big lemon sharks and one blacktip shark.  Ladyfish was the bait of choice on the bottom.  Yesterday we got into the redfish pretty good, found an area where the water was fairly clean compared to the rest of the bay/gulf water which was very muddy.  We caught 2 dozen nice islamorada redfish up to 8 lbs, mostly on shrimp though several on cut bait on the bottom.  Today we tried the same thing and caught a handful of reds though not like the other day.  Though we did get a nice size florida keys snook out of one of the creeks, and found a good mud on the way home loaded with nice trout and ladyfish.  The islamorada tarpon fishing report has not been real good... the fish will hopefully start showing up more in the backcountry channels and around the local spots as well, perhaps on the next moon and once the weather stabalizes.  Several boats the other night reported no bites at all unfortunately, when we get back into having falling tides in the evenings things will improve.  Capt. Bill Bassett reported a good bite of redfish way back at Cape Sable yesterday, they caught fish up to 15 lbs, poling and casting into ditches.  Capt. Jim Willcox had some nice redfish today as well.

4/11/12 Winds lay down.. major gulf/backcountry action!

The winds subsided the last couple of days to flat calm, giving some new options on florida keys backcountry charters.  Capt. Jim Willcox fished the gulf the last few days, running far back 30-40 miles to some wrecks.  They had some big sharks, goliath groupers, cobia, permit, and tripletail.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished off the cape, reporting several big sharks, mud marlins, and a big tarpon today.  They also caught plenty of big trout and tripletail on the way home.  Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti also had a nice goliath grouper and cobia today.  Many of the guides ran the trap buoys out west and the tripletails were pretty thick.  Lots of options, this is the time of year for great islamorada permit fishing in the gulf of mexico!.  The tides are right for evening tarpon fishing here the next several nights.. get out there and go fishing for tarpon in islamorada!!!

March flats fishing in Islamorada Florida Keys

March fishing in Islamorada was pretty good today in the backcountry.  We had a good easterly breeze of about 15 mph which is fairly light compared to how it has been!  Drifting some of the bays towards the gulf side there were plenty of trout, ladyfish, and snapper to be had for Capt. Rick Stanczyk.  They also caught a couple spanish mackerel.  Further off some of the banks Capt. Jim Willcox reported larger ladyfish and trout.  Capt. Rick reported fishing a few shorelines on higher water and catching a couple redfish just for something a little different.  Both Capt. Jim and Capt. Rick reported catching some big mud marlin, Capt. Jim actually caught 2, plus both reported some sharks as well.  Capt. Rick also caught a nice cobia on light tackle off the back of the large bottom dweller.  Capt. Bill Bassett reported lots of shark action, several large spinner sharks, and a few others mixed in including some bull sharks.  Fishing the backcountry in March has had a variety of opportunities considering the windy conditions in the florida keys.

3/10/12 Spring time monsters of Islamorada

Well after a long week of high winds which is typical of March, we finally had a little calmer day today on 3/10/12.  Almost every boat was out today at Bud n' Mary's Marina, it's very busy and everyone is happy about that!  Fishing Islamorada in March has been tricky as the high winds have left the backcountry very stirred up, lots and lots of weed everywhere you go.  Winds were down but not gone, started this morning out of the north with some scattered showers around most people avoided.  By afternoon it swung around to the east and was blowing steady 15 mph again, still not too bad.  Most everyone did some drifting in the bays and muds in the backcountry.  Trout fishing was fair for most, not a red hot bite but most fish were keeper size.  A handful of ladyfish mixed in but most guys had to really run around to find any of those.  There were some keeper size mangrove snappers also out on the edge of the gulf for some good table fare.  We had several multi-boat group trips in the islamorada backcountry today, and all did plenty of rod bending and caught big fish.  Remember if you have a group charter, with Bud n' Mary's every captain and guide is at one dock, you can get your breakfast/lunch and drinks to go.  There is no calling multiple captains, wondering if one will not show or any miscommunication of what's going on.  We all get along and can work together to produce fish for everyone!  Capt. Rick Stanczyk had a slow start, but ended up catching 2 nice tarpon of 75 and 120 lbs plus several smaller blacktip sharks.  Capt. Jim Willcox caught some blacktips and lemon sharks, as well as a 250 lb goliath grouper that was 6 ft. long in one of the backcountry channels.  Capt. Clyde Upchurch had a large mud marlin and also caught a cobia off of him.  Capt. Perry Scuderi reported getting the leader on a 50 lb tarpon before he jumped off, and also reported a decent bite of pompano in a mud close to home.  Capt. Bill Bassett reported lots of sharks, from blacktips to lemons and bulls.  As you can see in the tarpon picture below, once the in tide got going the weed made it almost unfishable, hopefully it will clear up soon!  Islamorada tarpon fishing in March has been tricky, fish are around but conditions are not ideal.  On the islamorada deep sea fishing side both the BNM and Finnster reported some nice big amberjacks.  9 yar old Q caught a 76 lb amberjack with Capt. Nick Stanczyk on BNM.  Relentless had a couple sailfish, Reel McCoy ahd one sail, most boats had plenty of yellowtail on the reef, and Catch 22 had a pair of cobia up to 40 lbs.  Islamorada reef fishing has been steady and the yellowtails have been fairly big, lots of flags!