4/4/13 Great tarpon fishing!

Today the islamorada tarpon fishing was really good.  Lots of mullet around in the morning and afternoons.  We caught 4/4 this morning in the backcountry by 10:00 AM.  Anglers had enough so we finished the day catching trout, ladyfish, and snappers.  This evening we caught 4/9 around the local bridges mostly on live mullet on top.  Very exciting bites and strikes, mostly smaller fish though did get one 65 lber.  Incoming tide on both trips and live fresh mullet for bait.  That's a total of 8/13 fish!  Capt. John Johansen and Capt. Ben Ekblom also had some tarpon action this evening.  Today Capt. Jim Willcox had lots of sharks, a big 'mud marlin', and a monster hammerhead as well.  The islamorada backcountry fishing will likely be tough the next few days as another front is coming and suppose to blow 25-30 tomorrow, but luckily not getting very cold so hopefully as soon as the wind lays down it will get back to normal.

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

1/24/13 Winter fishing islamorada backcountry in January!

Well it cooled down a bit again as we had another small cold front pass through the last couple days.  Today on 1/24/13 it was a chilly ride into the islamorada backcountry fishing.  Many guides repoted having to wear jackets and long pants all day so remember to bring them!  Capt. Mike Bassett reported good fishing back around the cape area of the mainland.  He had some fellows from Minnesotta down staying at Bud n Marys and happy to be out of the cold weather back home!  They got into redfish, black drum, trout, and snook.  Fishing mostly the deeper runoffs and plugs slow jigging shrimp.  January islamorada fishing is often good in those areas!  Capt. Jeff Beeler reported some trout, ladyfish, jacks, etc... out west on the edge of the gulf, kind of a slower pick, but they also caught some sharks as well at the end of the falling tide as things warmed up a bit and the sun radiated.  Islamorada shark fishing can be done all year long as you can see, though is often tougher when the water is colder.  Capt. Bob Reineman had some good islamorada flats fishing for redfish, they poled and blind casted and caught 30 or so on bucktails.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished a later afternoon half and we got into a pretty solid bit of trout, ladyfish, jacks, pompano, and even a few spanish mackerel mixed in.  One real nice size trout as well as big ladyfish, the rest were mostly throwbacks but fun to bend the rod on.  We also picked a handful of redfish around one of the islands before heading home this afternoon.  The weather should be decent the next few days but still a little chilly, so go out for some great january florida keys fishing!

7/28/12 Fishing the gulf of mexico

Capt. Rick Stanczyk had Bob Davidson and crew out for a day of fishing the gulf of mexico on 7/28/12.  We started off some of the banks that line the edge of everglades national park and the gulf.  The bite was hot with a mix of big ladyfish, sea trout, mangrove snappers, and jack crevelle.  We loaded up on fish for dinner, as well as more for bait for larger specimen.  We then headed to try to find some goliaths we had some action with the prior day, however another boat was fishing it, so we headed back west into the open gulf.  We had one of wrecks to our selves and the fish were there!  We had the last of the incoming tide.  Big schools of permit in every direction, great permit fishing in islamorada.  We caught about 8 total on shrimp and even bare jigs!  We tried pitching the one crab we had to some of the larger ones, though they did not appear interested.  After the tide started to fall we anchored up, and chunked up some ladyfish and caught 6 big goliath groupers up to 200 lbs!  Bob also got a nice 75 lb bull shark.  We also managed one cobia to the boat, and had one other small 4 pack follow a goliath up and disappear.  Great action and love to see it this time of year!

Capt. Bill Bassett also fished in the backcountry today and reported good action.  They caught plenty of trout and ladyfish in the bays.  They found lots of tarpon around some islands and had a couple in the air!  They also poled around a bit later and caught several redfish, after that they headed in a little earlier to beat the heat!

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!!!