1/10/12 Winter time backcountry fishing in Islamorada Florida Keys

Capt. Rick Stanczyk had the McGradys out today for a father-son retirement fishing trip!  Fishing has been pretty good overall in the backcountry especiallying fishing in flamingo.  We ran to that area and headed even further towards the cape and fished a few areas which have been pretty good as of late.  Seems the fish have been pretty beat up I've seen lots of boats sitting in there.  We poked around a few spots and had to work hard at it.  Between getting eaten alive by bugs on the boat and catfish on our baits, we finally got into a few good fish.  Several nice black drum along with a few other jacks, ladyfish, trout, etc...  We put a shark rod out and also caught a nice bull shark.  Saw a handful of tarpon rolling but they did not seem interested in eating.  When the tide quit we ran back towards flamingo to catch the end of the tide and fished some runoffs.  Not much to talk about there, did catch one little red and a nice snook on pinfish at the end that made it worth while.  Brian also caught a double header seagull and redfish at the same time - not what he was expecting!  Finished the day where we had a good bite of trout the other day, they were still there caught several nice size specs, along with jacks, pompano, and you guessed it - more catfish!  The guys had a blast though and our fishing with Capt. Nick Stanczyk offshore on Thursday.  They also are already planning a spring/summer trip for tarpon!

Capt. John Johansen reported a similar bite near the east cape area.  Capt. Mike Bassett reported a good mackerel bite on the edge of the gulf, good to know those fish are back as they had shut down due to the cold we experienced about a week ago.

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

1/6/12 Islamorada snook fishing in January!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished a full day today and headed back into the everglades early.  Yesterday some big schools of snook showed up way in the back, likely from this cold weather driving them down from the gulf coast of florida.  These fish were there today for our islamorada snook fishing trip.  We set up early, leaving the dock by 7 AM.  Shrimp was the bait of choice hooked through the horns on troll-rites, as the water was still cold.  Fish bit all through the end of the falling tide, slack tide, and the in tide.  We never moved all day, probably caught close to 40 snook, several nice size specimens such as these.  Also about a dozen redfish, handful of larger ones.  A couple black drum, trout, and sheepshead!  Aside from a few other boats running in on top of us and pratically casting into our boat, it was a great day on the water!  Come on down for some january fishing in islamorada!

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

1/1/12 Islamorada Fishing in January 2012

Happy New Year everyone, gorgeous weather today here fishing in islamorada!  Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti was out the other day and John Gray fishing along with his dad John Gray caught some nice Hogfish for dinner. They fished a full day in the backcountry. We released lots of nice trout and ladyfish. In the afternoon the winds dropped  off and we headed out to the shallow reef. Lots of action out there on barjacks and other hard fighting bottom dwellers.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk also fished Richard Cromwell and his son Luke, who are fishing with his brother Nick today offshore.  We caught a couple dozen reds, very beautiful fish way back in the everglades.  Also caught snappers, sheepshead, ladyfish, and jacks.  In the afternoon we ran out to some structure in the gulf and had a 35 lb cobia swim up but couldn't get him to eat.  Then we ended the day catching big trout in some channels and headed home!  Capt. John Johnsen fished the bay and ocean side as well yesterday... similar report mackerels, ladyfish, snapper in the back and lost a big goliath grouper at the boat.  Then caught hogfish and grouper oceanside and a nice cobia on fly rod!  Hope your out on the water today for your florida keys fishing in january!

Update on Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 06:41PM by Capt. Nick Stanczyk

Out on the Reef the New Year started out great as well. It was a beautiful day and Luke fished on the BNM and caught and released 2 sailfish, as well as keeping a couple of mahi, kingfish and yellow jacks. The Sugaree also had a limit of kingfish and a sailfish release.

12/12/11 Great mix bag day of fishing, backcountry and gulf!

Capt. Skip Nielsen had Doctors Liz and Mark Harris visiting from the Isle of Man in the UK.
They caught and released 18 redfish,20 seatrout then moved to the gulf where the Spanish Mackerel bite was off the chart. Broke out the flyrod and Dr. Mark released over 20 fish of 5 species on the flyrod. I quote from Mark.."I am knackered" what a great day of fishing in the Islamorada backcountry fishing out of Bud n Marys Marina!  The weather has been on the windy side as of late though great to be able to get some different kinds of fishing in on a full day trip!  Wonderful to see as we enter our busy christmas week fishing islamorada!

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!