1/11/12 Florida keys backcountry fishing january!

Well the threat of weather loomed all day long in the backcountry fishing islamorada today.  Luckily it never got bad on the water till everybody got home safe!  Capt. Jim Willcox reported lots of mackerels on bait and fly in the bay, also caught limit of snappers and a nice cobia on a live grunt.  They finished the day catching trout in the ditches in the everglades.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk reported similar fishing though we started fishing the ditches in the glades for trout which was good.  Fished around the cape area after that caught a few red and black drum and a big ray on a light spin rod, though not red hot in there.  Finished the day in the bay and found a nice hole caught 4 nice red groupers, a couple mutton snappers, mangrove snappers, porgies, mackerels, trout, and sharks in.  Had a good breeze out of the south most of the day and the rain came around 3:00, though suppose to be nicer tomorrow!  Great january fishing in the florida keys!

12/25/11 Christmas Day Fishing in Islamorada Florida Keys!

Capt. John Johansen went out today with his friend Jimmy Conrad who has been islamorada fishing for fun with him the last few days in the florida keys backcountry.  The past few afternoons they've done very well spanish mackerel fishing in the bays!  Lots of spanish macks and bag limit of nice mangrove snappers for dinner.  Look for these fish to stick around well through the period of fishing islamorada in january!  They also caught some nice big blacktip sharks, pictured below is Capt. Johnsen with one fine specimen!  This afternoon on 12/25/11 christmas day they bonefished close to home as the wind did howl a bit during the day.  Jim caught this nice bonefish in the early evening to end his day of florida keys fishing!  Stake up fishing was a good bet with the overcast and windy conditions.  Stay tuned for more news about fishing in the keys and we'll have some great islamorada fishing reports this week as it is one our busiest weeks of the year!  If your down here stop down by Bud n' Mary's and get out on the water it's about as nice of weather as you could ask for christmas week here in the keys!

12/17/11 Action packed reef and gulf fishing islamorada!

Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti fished Jerry Fontain his daughter Melanie and Mike Plonian. They went out to the patches this morning.  They caught lots of nice porgy, Hogfish and bar jacks along with some throw back grouper.  Lots of action fishing the islamorada patch reefs!  Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished this afternoon and reported a good spanish mackerel bite close to home in the bay behind Channel #2 and #5.  Mix of jacks, trout, ladyfish, and snapper in there as well.  The sharks were swarming too, caught a nice 60 lb blacktip and jumped a few others.  Further out offshore the offshore boats had a good bite of king mackerel and handful of sailfish bites though not real red hot.  The florida keys reef fishing was good however, the party fishing boat Miss Islamorada had tons of yellowtail - great dinner! 

12/6/11 Spanish mackerel fishing islamorada inshore

Jim & his friend is Ed from Maryland fished with Ed Cale today for a half day of fishing islamorada backcountry. They caught spanish macks, pompano, bluefish, bluerunner, bar jack, lane snapper, grey snapper & crevalle jacks!  Lots of action!  They also landed a nice blacktip shark.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk had them out the afternoon before, it was much windier and we couldn't fish the open bays, but got into some protected waters with several nice size trout, ladyfish, and a few mackerels as well.  The fishing further out west was not as good as it was close by, we did catch about a dozen spanish mackerels today, plus some blue runners, snappers, and ladyfish, but had to work at it pretty hard!  Long casts in the chum slick, alternating fast and slow retrieve with a double twitch produced fish best!  Good backcountry fishing action close to home with options on both the bay and ocean side depending on weather!

10/8/11 Some nasty weather, but great everglades fishing action!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk and Capt. Mike Bassett fished some of Rick's regulars down from NJ, Lee & Rob & Company for a florida keys charter.  The radar looked like lots of rain around so we waited to leave and made it over to the flamingo everglades area with no problem, decided to stick to just half a day due to weather concerns.  Stopped at our first spot, had the last of the falling tide for a good 1.5 hours and fishing was excellent!  Lots of snappers for dinner, a few nice big black drum, a nice slot red, one small snook and jumped another one off, and some big jacks!  Had a large bullshark eat a couple other fish, possibly nice reds or jacks.  Shrimp with jigs did the trick, throwing them up current and letting them sink along the edges of the banks and trees.  As the tide died at our spot everglades fishing islamorada we ran back towards home and hit a mud real quick.  A few trout and ladyfish in there, and one pompano too!  We stopped in one more area to try and get a few more snappers and the rain started to get us, and continued all the way home.  Totally worth it for these guys though, they always have a great time fishing at Bud n' Mary's!  Also nice to see a few of our winter time species starting to show up such as the pompano and black drum.

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