3/7/11 Silver Kings plus a silver trout!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished Jim & Gwen Johnson today on 3/7/11 for a great day fishing in Islamorada!  They fished with Rick last winter when it was very cold so thought they'd give it a try in the spring when it was warmer!!!  They ran 18 or so miles into the everglades national park and fished some channels back there, catching plenty of trout, ladyfish, jacks, and of course catfish!  Good action pretty much non-stop!  They stayed in the same area and put the big rods out for some bigger stuff.  They caught plenty of sharks for the rest of the afternoon, mostly black tips and a couple lunker nurse sharks!  They also caught 2 out of 3 tarpon which was a delight and Jim's dream to catch!  Gwen got to catch one as well so that made it even better!  One fish was close to 100 lbs and the other was 65-75 lbs!  While fishing for these we caught plenty more ladyfish and also this unusual silver trout with no spots!  Great action and fun while florida tarpon fishing!!!

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

3/4/11 Florida Tarpon Fishing in Islamorada Florida Keys!

Capt Jim Willcox fished with Richard Alt yesterday and caught this 125 lb tarpon & 5 blacktips around 100 lbstotaled over 600 lbs of fish for Mr. Alt.  The tarpon are starting to get a little more consistent hopefully when this wind lays down it will be game on!!!  Florida Tarpon Fishing will be the main focus of the backcountry here very soon!

3/1/11 Florida Tarpon Fishing, sharks, mackerels, snappers, and more!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished two half days on this first day of March, and had a great day to ring in the new month and start of spring!  This morning he fished Bob and Sue, who stayed the night at Bud n' Mary's and fished the day before in the backcountry, catching plenty of redfish, trout, and ladyfish.  They wanted to try something different so we took them out on the edge of the gulf.  Caught some mackerels, bigger ladyfish, and blue runners.  Also caught them 3 nice size blacktip sharks.  Caught a tide change in the middle, though the end of the fall and beginning of the rise was good fishing!  This afternoon Rick took Brent and his son-in-law kyle out for some florida keys fishing for dinner and caught them their limit of nice mangrove snappers!  They also caught a handful of mackerel, blue runners, and groupers too.  They wanted to catch a shark, so we went to one of the edges of the banks where the current was running pretty good and put out the few chunks of mackerel we had.  While rigging the 2nd rod up, the first conventional started going click-click-click-click!  Rick handed the rod to Brent, and said "lock it up in 10 seconds" figuring it was a shark.  All of a sudden - BOOM - big splash behind the boat and a nice 60 lb tarpon!  We caught him in about 15 minutes and got a nice picture of him and released him unharmed. We also caught a nice blacktip again after that for Kyle.  Great way to end a day of fabulous fishing in islamorada with a nice florida keys tarpon!!!  Capt. Jim Willcox also reported good fishign in the backcountry, trout, ladyfish, snappers, sharks, and caught another big 'mud marlin' as well!  Capt. Perry Scuderi also reported good action around the bridges for mackerel, ladyfish, bluefish, and caught a big 250+ lb goliath grouper in the channels near the bridges!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903
rick@seethefloridakeys.net
http://www.budnmarys.com

2/23 + 2/24 Lots macks, snappers, trout, and some big sea monsters!

Captain Rick Stanczyk & Captain Jim Willcox had the honor of fishing Ed Nightbert & Frank Sadler for one day each. These guys hunt & fish all over the world. After a great experience last year they returned to Bud & Mary's & stayed with us again.  Both days the boys caught their limit of snapper,many many mackerel, trout, ladyfish, jacks etc.....Then both days we put out the big rods. We had tarpon on, but they alluded us , however multiple large bull sharks & blacktips were brought to the boat by these guys. Both days the men experienced the huge mystery fish we encounter so big we couldn't get them past the leader. Bottom line serious heavy action both days. Here's Rick leadering up another monster fish, they fought this one for almost 2 hours and it drug them 4 miles into the Gulf of Mexico! Likely close to 1000 lbs, had some wraps on the wind-on leader, but the hook eventually broke.  Today Capt Jim fished Dennis & Laura fellow Philadephians, similar results as Ed & Frank with a finish of huge trout!!

2/9/11 Got chillier, but still good fishin'

Capt. Rick Stanczyk had Wayne, Paul, and Jim down from Canada for a full day trip today.  It was their first time fishing the florida keys.  We left out at 7:15 am, which was easy as they stayed the night at Bud n' Mary's and loved it, want to make it a yearly adventure!  We caught a bunch of ladyfish and a handful of mackerel as well as some snappers early.  When the chum ran out, we stopped in a couple different runoffs and caught some trout and jacks.  We also caught a flounder which is a very unusual fish!  We then ran to a nearby tarpon spot and gave that a go for a while, we had a big tarpon bite almost instantly!  Unfortunately the fish swam up under our anchor rope and jumped wildly throwing the hook, though it was very exciting to see!  We ended up catching about a 100 lb bullshark on mono though which was cool.  We had the last of the outgoing tide, and when it died we decided to try some more trout and redfishing.  Caught one redfish, and ended up catching some nice trout when the tide started rolling back in.  We then gave it one last shot for a tarpon for the last hour, didn't have any bites but we did catch a lemon shark.  Great day of islamorada fishing! 

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