1/7/13 Great fishing offshore and backcountry fishing for the Dwyers!

Jason and Brendan Dwyer from Arizona recently visited and went florida keys fishing with us last week after new years .  They fished offshore on The Reel McCoy as well as in the backcountry with Capt. Rick Stanczyk, and early morning for tarpon near Islamorada with Capt. Vic Gaspeny.  Successful in all venues, they caught sailfish offshore with Capt. George McElveen on Reel McCoy, tarpon and a even a few permit with Capt. Vic, plus a mixed backcountry bag of mackerel, snapper, bluefish, trout, pompano, and a couple cobias with Capt. Rick Stanczyk.  With the warm winter weather we have had recently, just about anything is possible fishing in islamorada.  Give us a call and we can set a trip up for you!

1/4/13 Backcountry and Gulf Florida Keys Fishing Report

Had Sue Cocking down from the Miami Herald today on 1/4/13 for a little fishing story for the outdoors section of the Herald.  There was a last minute cancellation to her original plans and we set something up the day before.  We decided to go for a backcountry islamorada fishing trip and to showcase a variety of fish, as that is one of the special things about fishing in the florida keys.  We started out near flamingo, fishing some high-water spots near some mangroves for redfish.  We caught about a half dozen or so, as well as a few black drum and sheepshead.  We later moved to some deeper moats on the change of the tide to look for some snook.  We did hook one nice one that broke us off near the boat, and ended up catching a few more black drum and sheepshead.  Later we moved to some other channels where there had been some nice muds with a good mix of fish.  Trout, ladyfish, pompano, and a baby permit were to be had.  All fish to this point were caught on simple shrimp and jigs whilst islamorada fishing.  We started to use some tiny ladyfish pieces to catch pinfish,  and we mohawked them catching a couple dozen while bending the rod with other stuff!  We then headed out into the gulf of mexico fishing as the weather was slick calm and looked too pretty not to try.  We found several tripletail on the way out, and caught several keeping 3 for dinner.  Casting shrimp on a bare hook with tiny float was effective, and we even caught a few on light jigs as some were staying down a little deeper.  We then went gulf wreck fishing and caught several cobias up to 15 lbs, as well as another permit, and a large 100 lb goliath grouper!  Cobias were all caught on our fresh pinfish.  We then wanted to try to catch some mackerel, so we headed back towards sprigger bank and fished a few miles out from there.  On the way we came across something very unusual - several large packs of bonitas in the 8 - 12 lb range feeding on something very small.  We didn't get any bites out of them, but were able to drive right on top to confirm what they were!  As soon as we anchored and casted in our mackerel area we had fish on, we put a little chum out and caught about a dozen spanish mackerel as well as a few bluefishfish and snappers.  We then headed home, another beautiful day here and fun to be had in all areas, not just islamorada flats fishing in the backcountry!  Capt. Vic Gaspeny has reported excellent water and temperature conditions for tarpon fishing in islamorada.  They caught 9 in early morning trips as well as a 30 lb permit.

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

10/16/12 October Fishing Report Islamorada

Well we had a gentle breeze out of the north this morning on 10/16/12, which had swung out shoreside of the cape area.  Tides were extremely low back there this morning, lots of bird life including tons of roseattes showing up for the winter time.  October fishing in Islamorada is great!  We ran back to the cape today and hit some snook spots early on the low water, however not much action on the pinfish did catch a couple and miss a couple but the fish were funny.  We idled up in a couple creeks and did get into some nice bunches of redfish.  Islamorada Backcountry Fishing is all about fishing the conditions!  As the water started in, it did bring some of the muddier gulf water inside.  We did have a couple more snook bites as the waters rose above many of the downs trees near the shorelines, once the water was high enough we motored back into the sticks.  Picked around at more redfish in the shallows and then headed back towards home for this fishing charter islamorada.  On the way back we came across some several thousand mullets all schooled up swimming hard against the in current and the tarpon were going nuts on them.  Busting tarpon as far as you could see all up and down the beach and canal.  The fall mullet run has been very evident on the incoming tide deep in the everglades and the tarpon are happy.  Great time to catch tarpon fishing in islamorada.  We ended up netting some mullet and did get a coulple tarpon strikes, finally hooking one on a drift and catching it on light 15 lb tackle.  Proud to report that Capt. Vic Gaspeny caught his first 'backcountry' slam consisting of redfish, snook, and tarpon.  Always good to here on an october florida keys fishing report.  The fall is a great time to fish here and the everglades can be a very good place to try!  Still technically in our 'off season' you'll have much of the 'glades to yourself, so come on down let's go fishing!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

 

10/8/12 October Fishing in the Florida Keys

Well over the past weekend here, islamorada fishing in october has continued to prove it's a great time of year to come down and fish.  Shots at all kinds of fish are possible, there's much less boat traffic on the water, and for the most part conditions have been good with light winds and a tad less heat than a few months ago.  In the backcountry fishing florida keys Capt. Jim Willcox had some fabulous fishing.  They had a tarpon on fly first thing in the morning, then some monster redfish on fly!  Pretty impressive size red drum for down here fishing islamorada.  They also had multiple big jacks and some cobias, which have still been around both in the gulf as well as offshore which is unusual for this time of year.  On the offshore side there has been some sailfishing in Islamorada starting to happen.  Both Sugaree and Strictly Business has sailfish releases as well as some good catches of king mackerel (kingfish).  The Strictly business also had a decent catch of yellowtail snapper.  On Friday the Relentless had a good catch of mahi and blackfin tuna further offshore.  Great to still have some islamorada dolphin fishing going on!  Weather looks fairly calm and stable this week with winds out of the northeast which is the norm entering the fall, which should be good for fishing this time of year!

9/20/12 Great backcountry september florida keys fishing report!

Had my father Capt. Richard Stanczyk Sr. and friend/photographer Ron Modra out for some september fishing in islamorada for fun today!  We brought some shrimp and a load of pinfish to try deep in the florida everglades fishing.  We left early at 6:00 AM and headed back to cape sable.  We found some rolling tarpon early in the morning though it was tough to get bites out of them.  We drifted pinfish, anchored, alas no luck.  Finally I had one pinfish just hanging behind the transom of the boat, splashing on the surface, and wham a nice 40 lb tarpon ate him right there!  We caught him, very nice fight on light 15lb spin gear!  We then headed further back up the cape and fished some of the runoffs and shorelines.  Tide was still falling and water was very low for florida keys fishing in september, we finally found one area where there were several nice slot redfish and got one small/medium snook, fishing mostly shrimp and some cut bait.  We also got a nice baby goliath grouper and a couple small black drum.  We continued picking away and made are way up the creek as the tide died.  We then tried some other creeks, and as the tide started coming in so did some big snook!  We caught several nice 10-12 lber islamorada snook fishing, likely half a dozen and a couple smaller ones.  We got one nice 10 lb red as well.  Most these fish were eating pinfish.  We then had lunch and looked around a bit more and then made are way back towards middle cape.  We tried one more shoreline area and got into some more big redfish, 10-12 lbers, and got one more nice snook.  Again, pinfish was the ticket as well as some cut bait.  The tide was coming in pretty good now, and the overcast/rainy weather likely helped keeping the water a bit cooler for our islamorada fishing trip.

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