3/13/13 Islamorada night tarpon fishing report in march

Well had my first official march islamorada night tarpon fishing trip of the season.  Chris and Steph were down from Baltimore, and Chris reads the blog regularly and I promised to make him famous!  We did have a light blast of cool air last night with a predominant 15-20 knot north wind which generally the tarpon don't like.  You can't predict these things ahead of time, though the best time to tarpon fish islamorada is whenever you can make it down here.  However the water temperatures didn't plummet and were still in the low 70s which was a good thing, as well as falling tide till dark which I like.  The wind also laid out nicely around 6:00 or so.  Anyways I brought a loaded variety of bait included cigar minnows, pinfish, nice big live shrimp, and of course some crabs.  We made some drifts early starting around 4:15 pm in one of the channels where I had seen tarpon on previous days, though not much luck.  I anchored up near one of the bridges where we saw a tarpon roll as I pulled up and set up.  Tarpon fishing the bridges is often productive as most always there will be some tarpon around them.  We had one tarpon bite on a cigar minnow but unfortunately missed him.  We caught a nurse shark off a bait on the bottom, and while photographing him had another bite on a big shrimp - not sure if it was a tarpon or not but it zipped drag for a good 2 seconds so had to be something of decent size...  No more bites here, but we did catch a nice legal size gag grouper off the bottom which was cool, of course we released him as they are out of season now.  Nearer sunset we ran further back to catch the last of the falling tide, and on our first drift we did see a tarpon roll.  We made 2 more drifts and finally around 7:30 hooked up a nice 75 lb fish on a live crab.  Made a couple really good runs and spectacular jumps which my camera phone is not good at capturing, but we did land the fish and I snapped a quick picture.  After that it was time to head home.  Glad my first march islamorada tarpon fishing report at night was a good one!  This week there have been some other fish caught as well, I know Capt. Vic Gaspeny caught one early this morning and the past couple days Capt. Skip Nielsen had several nice fish, as well as Capt. Jim Willcox with one the other day in the backcountry.  Tommorrow night got downgraded to 15mph out of the north so may be fishable, not sure how the night fishing will be the rest of the week/weekend.  But if your interested give Bud n' Mary's or myself a call and we'll give you an honest opinion!  March can be a very good time to fish and if the cold weather stops, the fish are around and have not seen a ton of hooks yet so can feed really well with the right conditions!

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

11/28/12 November Islamorada Fishing Report Backcountry

Well just back in town after a much needed vacation and glad to have gotten back out on the water the last couple days even if it was just for fun!  Well this last few days of november fishing in the florida keys have been rather productive and looks like the wind will be blowing the next several days starting after today 11/28/12.  We ran deep into the everglades fishing today along with Capt. Jim Willcox.  Hit a couple gulf spots early this AM on the falling water, managed a nice cobia on light tackle along with a nice redfish, plus a large sting ray that got us a little excited!  Once the tide turned we headed back towards the mainland cape sable.  It was king of a slow and steady pick of fish we had to work and move around, managed 15 or so reds with a few nice size fish on pinfish, plus plenty of ladyfish, jacks, snapper, and a few trout.  Lots of variety thats what we love about fishing islamorada backcountry.  Later in the day fished some deeper creeks and shorelines where we got into a few snook.  Had a bite or two in several spots we hit, mostly nice larger size fish.  Ended the day at east cape the water and current was so good looking we stayed late, however did not have much luck there, but at least we had a satisfying overall day!  Capt. Jim Willcox reported a similar bite of redfish and some snook in the back, they also ran deep into the everglades.  After some more cold fronts look for many of the redfish, snook, and black drum to stack up in the deeper water and provide an excellent winter time fishing in islamorada place to go!  Yesterday we also fun fished, caught several spanish mackerel in the morning and got some cool video footage of big goliath on a wreck, plus some tripletail footage on buoys in the gulf.  We caught several large redfish and a cobia later in that day, broke off a big snook, and caught a couple dozen puppy drum to end that day as well.  Great backcountry fishing in the florida keys in november!  Capt. Skip Nielsen reported good action on the patches fishing the ocean side today, as well as a good spanish mackerel bite in the afternoon yesterday on the incoming tide.

6/3/12 Backcountry fishing report and florida keys tarpon fishing

Well summer feels like it is here things sure are getting hot now.  We've still been having some crazy weather patterns though the last few days have been absolutely gorgeous.  Before that we had a couple days of solid rain again coming out of the tropics.  On 6/3/12 I got back in the backcountry fishing with Mickey, Mike, and Mike for some backcountry fishing.  The day before we had caught loads of trout, ladyfish, and a few snappers.  Had tried islamorada tarpon fishing for a little while but action fishing was preferred!  On this day we started out way back in the everglades.  First fish of the day was a large snook of 20+ lbs!  Great way to start. We then caught 3 big sea monsters for something large for the boys to pull on.  One of them drug us a mile inshore.  We also had a hammerhead shark eat a pinfish off the surface while getting pulled around which was a cool sight to see.  Tarpon were rolling in the area but we did not have any bites out of them.  After this we hit some high tide shoreline spots and found some nice redfish, and also caught half a dozen black drum which is unusual for this time of year, as well as another snook!  Great day of family fishing in the florida keys!

Capt. Skip Nielsen had been reported good tarpon action on mullet last week with several multiple fish days, though finding the mullet is getting tougher and tougher.  Some bites on the falling tide in the afternoons have also come on crabs, Capt. Perry Scuderi had a nice fish the other afternoon on a crab. Capt. Mike Bassett also reported some snook action in the everglades on live pilchards. The falling tide will be extending nicely into the evening trip hours throughout this week, so it would be a good time to plan a night tarpon fishing trip in islamorada!

4/28/12 Islamorada Tarpon Fishing Report

This is the time of year for islamorada tarpon fishing.  The fishing as of late had been a little tough, with a cold front coming in April and before that a few days of hard 20-30 knot west winds that really stirred up the backcountry and bay.  Most day and night trips have still yielded some fish, however often it has been only a bite or two a trip and you need to make the most of them.  The overcast and rainy conditions today made for great fishing for Capt. Jeff Beeler.  They caught 3 out of 6 bites on a half day trip fishing live mullters, fishing nearby and dodging in and out of the foul weather!  Capt. Vic Gaspeny had 2 nice fish a couple mornings ago going early, very large fish too!  Capt. Rick Stanczyk reported catching 1 out of 2 fish yesterday, getting a fish early the morning before, and a 1 out of 3 fish during the day before that.  Capt. Ben Loy had 1 fish last night as well.  There have been reports of large schools of fish making their way towards Islamorada especially on the ocean side, so look for the fishing to improve as we get into May, which traditionally is the peak of tarpon fishing in the florida keys!  Crabs have been working good in the dark hours, and mullets are the bait of choice this time of year during the daylight.  As I tell all my anglers even when the fishing is red hot, often you must put your time in.  On most trips the bites do come, however lately you've needed to make the most of them as the shots are limited!

Capt. Skip Nielsen also reported catching one fish on fly yesterday sight casting the edges of the banks in the backcountry of Islamorada.  Fly tarpon fishing in Islamorada can be done too!  They also caught a fish later on live mullet down near the channel 2 and 5 bridges.

Tarpon, tarpon, tarpon April 2012!

Debbie and Rich Riolo fished with Capt. Skip Nielsen for a sunset Tarpon trip April 4th 2012. Using Foxsportfishing tackle Rich had 3 releases and Debbie had 2 releases. They also had lots of cheap shots. They were fishing with big fresh live mullet for bait. A very exciting time for these BudnMary's regulars.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished with Stu Heishman last night April 5 and today on April 6.  Last night the bite was on for florida keys tarpon fishing, we caught 3 out of 5 tarpon losing two after several jumps.  We also had lots of cheap shots as well.  One of the tarpons we had leadered and were trying to drag over to a flat for a picture, and he took off into the channel.  Next thing a huge 600 lb hammherhead grabbed him and chomped him in half, playing with him for several minutes.  Unfortunately no pictures as the wind/tide/boat traffic was tough to navigate!  Today Stu fished with his son in the backcountry, it was a tough day hard southwest wind and the water really stirred up everywhere.  We caught plenty of ladyfish and trout this morning.  Tried to run into the backcountry to fish for some big things but not much action just one small blacktip.  Ran back near Islamorada and did end up catching a nice 40 lb tarpon which made the day.  April tarpon fishing in Islamorada is the thing to do!