1/3/12 Islamorada flats fishing and offshore report

Capt. John Johansen fished the other day with some customers in a 22' Center Console and did some offshore fishing with them.  They caught several nice tunas and 20 mahi in the 5-7 pound range!  Crazy to see them still around here even in January!  However with the cold weather we experienced last night that could all change.  The islamorada flats fishing turned on for Capt. Jim Willcox who ran back into the everglades today.  The winds were ripping out of the north 15-25 mph - cold chilly ride but able to run the edges of the banks.  Fishing was incredible for them!  Lots of drum, red and black, and big ones too as you can see up to 36 inches!  They also caught dozens of snook!  Two big bull sharks also were caught to put the icing on the cake for this action packed day here january fishing in islamorada.

12/29/11 Islamorada fishing guide report

Islamorada fishing guide Capt. Jim Willcox fished a full day today on 12/29/11.  They ran deep into the everglades all the way up to the cape area of the mainland.  The cool weather from the cold front we've had the last day often turns these fish on - and it did today!  They caught lots of redfish, sheepshead, trout, black drum in some of the different creeks.  They also caught this monster snook!  The wind layed down today to a nice 10 knots or so in the AM, and was even lighter by this afternoon almost turning out of the west.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk reported a decent spanish mackerel bite this morning along with plenty of blue runners, ladyfish, and mangrove snappers.  They also caught a 250 lb hammerhead shark but unfortunately it got wrapped in the leader before we could snap a picture.  This afternoon he fished another party and they caught several snappers, sheepshead, jacks, a nice pompano, and a few big trout!  Capt. Perry Scuderi looked like he had some nice hogfish this afternoon, he was able to sneak out to the patches!

12/23/11 Christmas fishing in the Islamorada Backcountry!

Fishing in the backcountry was red hot today for Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti on 12/23/11. Lots of nice snook and redfish, which will hopefully continue biting into our january islamorada fishing report trips. Ned Barnes along with his son Tripp and niece Lauren released lots of both. They fished around flamingo with very low water as you can see from some of the pictures.  After the bite slowed we headed to the Gulf. Once there we caught lots of Spanish mackerel. The winds were down from  what they have been about a ten knot breeze out of the east, which is a releif as the past several days have been 15-25 knot winds - very windy month of December!  Christmas week fishing in the florida keys should be very nice as the temperature has been warm in the 70s and doesn't look like it will change much, so get out on the water if your down here!!!

12/18/11 Fishing the everglades and east cape.

Had John and his girlfriend over from across the pond (Australia!) today for a full day florida keys backcountry fishing trip!  We left out early at 7 am, stiff north-northeast breeze about 15mph, not too bad but a little chilly.  We headed back to the east cape area where fish have been stacking up in many of the canals and ditches.  First stop we fished a canal mouth, jigging shrimp and pinfish on the bottom.  Tide was still trickling in.  First fish of the day was a nice snook on one of the pins!  Also caught a few small reds and mix of crevalle jacks.  Moved a little further in to a run-off, tide switched and got the reds going pretty good there.  Caught probably 15, also a couple of nice sheeps head!  Headed a little further west to east cape canal and hit a few run-off creeks inside there.  One held some more decent redfish, and caught a couple nice black drum, along with a few more big sheepshead!  Bounced around since the bugs were bad (no-seeums!).  Did not do much else, ran to lake ingrham and caught a couple little reds there, stopped and ate lunch.  Headed back towards home, stopped for some islamorada flats fishing near one of the islands.  Drifted and poled one of the edges and found a school of little redfish, caught one.  Also blew out a snook.  For the end of the day tried mackerel fishing in the bay again, though the tide was hard into the wind, not ideal!  Caught a handful of blue runners and mangrove snappers, and then headed back home.  Christmas week is almost here so book your fishing trips today, soon we will be islamorada fishing in january!

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

12/10/11 Sprigger Bank Fishing Charter

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished Tom and Rick again today for a half day sprigger bank fishing charter.  We left out a little after dawn, good tide heading into the gulf with gentle east breeze behind it.  After arriving at our spot about 45 minutes later we drug the chum bag around a bit to get them going good.  Tons and tons of pinfish out there as usual, dip netted by hand about 50 of them!  After anchoring down on some potholes we started fishing.  Spanish mackerel bite was just about as good as you wanted it, not too crazy where they were biting the knots off every other cast, but a fish every 3rd cast or so.  We caught plenty on just one block of chum, also a nice mix of blue runners, and some big ladyfish at the end, plus random mangrove snapper and sea trout.  Lots of fun action on ultra light tackle rods, a few real line zingers!!! Put some shark rods out but the big blacktips were not biting, water was still a little chilly though back there.  We tried to hit a goliath spot a little further out, but no avail, did catch some more macks out there as well as random mix bags of other things.  Little bumpy ride in for a few miles in the open gulf, as wind did pick up a bit, but thankfully not too much.  Anyways good action packed half day for our florida keys flats fishing trip.

Capt. Jim Willcox ran far back into the everglades and fished the cape area and some other channels and run-offs in the backcountry.  They caught redfish, some big trout, and a nice snook!