2/8/11 Tarpon, trout, snappers, and more!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk and Capt. Jim Willcox both dide full days fishing in Islamorada today.  They both caught a tarpon each, Jim had a couple more bites he missed as well as some sharks.  Both caught plenty of jacks, trout, ladyfish, and snappers for dinner.  Capt. Rick also reported catching 15 or so redfish.  Wind started blowing out of the west in the afternoon slowing things down but we got it while the gettin' was good, looks like it may get chillier tonight but hopefully not for long!

2/6/11 Backcountry Tarpon

Captain Jim Willcox did an AM 1/2 day this Super Sunday with JW Howard & his son Wade. They both caught non-stop jacks, trout & pompano. In the final hour 12 year old Wade caught his first permit & a 120lb tarpon.  Yesterday Capt. Jim fished and jumped 2 tarpon off, though did catch a few bull sharks and some other shark varieties, as well as some smaller stuff.  Capt. Jeff Beeler did catch a tarpon in the back yesterday as well.  Offshore today Capt. John Johnansen and Capt. Rick Stanczyk took some people fun fishing, and caught them their first sailfish, a nice 25 lb cobia, and limit of kingfish.  Saw plenty of sails though they were tough to get to eat and there was a tournament going on so we didn't want to mess with them too much, and a big school of smaller cobias, and the kingfish bit well!

2/4/11 Tarpon are back! Along with other good fishing!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished with his father, Capt. Richard Stanczyk Sr., and friend Capt. Dave Peck from North Carolina down here for the winter today.  We fished some channels between Islamorada and Flamingo in the morning, got a late start around 8:30, but still had some good falling tide.  Caught plenty of seatrout, some ladyfish, and a couple good pompano for dinner.  After hitting a few spots we moved out to hit some good tarpon holes as we had heard there were some free-jumpers spotted the day before, and we saw a couple in some deeper channels while we were running around back there.  We set up about 11:00 when the tide started coming in, and boy was it fantastic!  Our florida tarpon fishing trip saw 4 tarpon hooked in the air, however we were only able to get one to the boat.  We even hooked one on a light rod with jig/shrimp.  We also caught a couple of blacktip sharks.  The strangest thing of the day though was a 500 lb sawfish we caught on accident, Capt. Dave Peck had never seen one so it was very exciting for him!  We caught him on a tarpon rod with 80 lb mono leader and a small 4/0 hook, amazingly, he took off like a frieght train then stopped dead in his tracks and hugged the bottom while we finger-tipped him up with the leader and got a good look at him.  We released him unharmed as these are very rare and protected fish - true dinosaurs!!! Hopefully this is a good sign that it will be a fantastic year for our florida keys fishing!!!

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

2/3/11 - Reds in the back, and some tarpon starting to show up!

Capt Jim Willcox fished with Bud & Mary's regular Tom Looby from Rochester NY today. We caught redfish in everyspot we fished,  & the warm weather has the tarpon showing up early in the back.  Very low tides in the back, and the water warming up, should be some good early tarpon fishing here soon with lots of bait being seen when fishing islamorada.

12/29/10 - Still a little chilly, but fishable and fun!

Capt. Jim Willcox today catching over 150 redfish in some deeper channels way back in the everglades today, despite being record lows just a a couple nights ago!  He said trout fishing was not happening yet the couple spots he tried.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk, Capt. Ken Cohan, and Capt. Ed Cale had good fishing on the patch reefs, lots of porgies, snappers, few nice groupers and muttons, hogfish, and some nice cero mackerels!  Ken also caught a few pompanos, and Rick had a big bluefish!  Capt. Mike Bassett reported catching a couple smaller tarpon in one of the local Islamorada canals, all huddle up from the cold weather!  Capt. Nick Stanczyk aboard the BnM had 5 sailfish today!  Capt. Alex Adler aboard the Kalex had some nice king mackerels, and smaller cero's, as well as some bottom fish and a nice cuda caught by a young angler!  Looks like the weather will just be getting nicer and nice as we move in to the weekend, and hopefully hold up for next week!