2/24/12 Great backcountry fishing for big fish!

Today we had the wind out of the south again though not blowing too hard about 10 mph.  Capt. Jim Willcox and Capt. Rick Stanczyk were both fishing out on the edge of the gulf in everglades national park for this trip fishing islamorada in february.  Both reported good catches of big trout in the bays with a mix of ladyfish, snappers, jacks, and occasionally other fish as well!  After that both fished some of the channels in the area.  Capt. Willcox caught this monster tarpon!  Many of the fish back there now are very large mostly 100+ lbs!  Capt. Stanczyk caught this 'mud marlin' that was close to 200 lbs!  They also caught a 15 lb cobia that was following him, unfortunately they didn't have a gaff and he jumped out of the net.  After that fight with the sea monster, the anglers had enough big stuff.  So they hit some shallow spots for some redfish since they were about at the bottom of the falling tide.  They had some luck catching about 10 redfish up to 8 lbs, and a mix of trout in there as well as a few on fly!  They ran back up to the east along the mainland since they wanted to see some more of the everglades, and ended up catching a nice snook on artifcial GULP bait, and a couple more reds around some islands.  Great way to end a fantastic day of florida keys fishing charters!  Capt. Ken Cohan also reported an encounter with a seamonster and a cobia.  Florida keys tarpon fishing is starting now, come down and get in on the action!

2/22/12 Islamorada backcountry shark and tarpon fishing!

Gerald Cohen holds up a Blacktip Shark for his 9 year old daughter Liat. She released 13 sharks and caught and released her first ever Tarpon an estimated 85 pounder.  She was using Foxsportfishing tackle.   Also on the trip was Hannah,Ben and mom Liz. Everybody got in on the shark action. Earlier in the day Spanish Mackerel and Mangrove Snapper were caught. The Cohen's have been Bud and Marys fishing customers since 1971 and fished with Captain Skip Nielsen.  Great to see the islamorada tarpon fishing starting to pick up!

1/28/12 Good Backcountry Fishing in Flamingo

Bob and Bobby Joyce from Boston went out on a full day in the backcountry with Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti a few days ago. They fished in the Flamingo area catching trout, redfish, and Blackdrum. They also caught black drum and a snook!  Capt. Skip Nielsen reported a good bite of tarpon the other day in the backcountry with Cliff Fox, they caught 4 out of 6!  Capt. Rick Stanczyk reported a good spanish mackerel bite on the edge of the gulf yesterday, they caught a boat load, plus mangrove snappers, trout, and pompano.  They jumped a couple tarpon they couldn't get to stay on, but did catch a couple 100lb bull sharks!  The tarpon may thin out again for a few days since we had a drop in temperature, but after it warms up again for a few days it should be game on! 

11/9/11 Islamorada Offshore & Backcountry Report

Fishing was good all around today here in Islamorada Florida Keys.  In the backcountry Capt. Rick Stanczyk reported hooking double digit snook and catching 8 or so.  Redfishing around flamingo was not so hot just a few small rats.  Capt. Mike Bassett caught a real nice size fish on a half day back there as well.  Capt. Jim Willcox ran deep into the backcountry and caught some snook, redfish, and a baby tarpon.  Capt. Skip Nielsen did say he got a few nice size reds out to the west.  Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti fished the patches and caught several nice size hogfish - great eating!  Also plenty of porgies and other fish.  Offshore Capt. Nick Stanczyk on the BnM got into several nice mahi, great to see them this time of year.  They also caught 2 sailfish.  The gulf edge got a little nasty this afternoon, Capt. Rick reported it started blowing out of the west shutting a lot of fishing down out there this afternoon, we did catch some nice jacks and found a big goliath grouper on some structure.  Unfortunately we hooked him about 6 times and could not pull him out of it with the rod we had, must of been a very big fish!!!  Great fun still though to feel them pull!

10/29/11 Beautiful day backcountry fishing islamorada

Well the weatherman cost a lot of people some enjoyment today, we had 70% chance of rain suppose to be real nasty and it was absolutely gorgeous today!  Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished a half day with Danita and Charles Ramey down from North Miami area.  Charles does a lot of fishing for snakeheads in fresh water around mainland areas so he wanted to give it a shot down here!  We ran back around flamingo and tried tarpon fishing since I saw plenty rolling around the day before.  Not much action our first stop, water was kind of nasty and wind was blowing weird SW direction, so we moved back further to hit runoffs.  Caught plenty of ladyfish, jacks, and some decent trout.  With a mullet on the bottom in the channel, we ended up hooking a nice 80 lb tarpon.  Danita fought it for 20 minutes and we got it to the boat ,snapped some pics, and let her go.  Not much else to it, fished a while longer, no reds or snooks.  Tried around one of the islands on our way back, but same deal a few snappers and jacks and that was all she wrote. I've heard reports the spanish mackerel are showing up out on the edge and in the gulf now, too rough today but will be trying as soon as it lays down a bit!  Looking forward to big mackerels, watch for our november islamorada fishing report florida keys.