7/28/11 Baby hammerhead, tarpon, big trout and snaps!

Well it's not all about lobster mini season this week!  Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished a full day in the backcountry today on 7/28/11 and had a wonderful time.  The wind was howling almost 20 knots most the day - very unusual for July!  Though it kept the heat & sweat down for the most part which was a welcome change.  With thousands of people in the water snorkeling and diving looking for those caribbean crawlers, we ran way in the backcountry and only saw one other boat the whole day back there!  Fishing was fantastic early, we caught several large trout on shrimp and artificials.  We also caught some jumbo mangrove snappers!  The ladyfish were chomping too and we saved several of those for bait.  We set up in one of the channels for some bigger stuff, and the bite was slow to come but produced nicely.  We caught a 75 lb tarpon after our first hour.  Then a 60 lb lemon shark, followed by a 40 lb hammerhead, and finally a small 30 lb blacktip!  Not too shabby for the conditions and time of year.  We tried around one of the islands at the end of the day for a few reds but we didn't find any. However a few days ago, Capt. Vinnie Biondeletti took his son Ryan out and did manage to wrangle up a few sight fishing in the everglades!

7/13/11 Night tarpon fishing and florida keys backcountry fishing!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished with Graeme and his father over from Scotland last night and today. They wanted to catch some big stuff for their florida keys fishing charter trip.  We went out late yesterday afternoon in search of tarpon.  With the in tide and most of the migrating fish gone from the local areas we usually night fish at it looked like it may be tough.  We caught some stuff for bait and brouht some crabs and gave it our best shot.  We had two tarpon bites early and caught one fish that was roughly 60 lbs and had another jump and spit the bait!  We also caught some nice lemon sharks and had a couple others bite us off.  When it started getting closer to dark we began drifting with our crabs.  Jumped another tarpon on our 2nd drift close to dark.  It was a pretty night almost full moon, and on our last drift Grame hooked one about 90 lbs that gave him a good 30 minute battle before we went in!  Very pretty to see a tarpon jumping in the bright moon light!  We fished a full day in the everglades today, it was brutally hot but fishing was decent.  We caught our limit of trout, some snappers and a few ladyfish.  We caught one tarpon in one of the channels way in the back plus a few blacktip sharks.  We moved to another area and caught a few more sharks, including a big 200 lb lemon shark!  We also caught a triple tail on a GULP shrimp, after casting to him several times with no response we finally hit him on the head with it and he GULPED it!

6/20/11 Islamorada backcountry fishing trout and tarpon!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished all day today in the islamorada backcountry fishing with Jeff Cohen family.  We ran back in the everglades and it was very nice back there, mildly overcast so not too hot and a good east southeastish breeze.  We drifted in some of the bays back there where the water looked nice and dirty and the trout bite was ON!  We caught our limit of nice ones up to over 20 inches, plus released a lot more.  Also caught some ladyfish and snappers too.  This was nice too see as the trout bites been a little tough to find any numbers of decent size fish!  We did this for a an hour and a half or so then set up in some channels in the back to catch big stuff.  We put our time in, almost an hour into it with no bites and then a rod bent over and the line raced towards the bow of the boat.  BIG 120+ lb tarpon goes airborne and jumpes over our anchorline.  I spin the rod around and hand it to young Mendel and we chased after the monster!  About 45 minutes later after several big jumps and hard runs, we landed the fish!  We ran and set back up and had another bite within 10 minutes, about a 100 lb fish went airborne but threw the hook.  We caught a few small sharks and then the tide slacked to almost nothing - but another rod started to take off right when the tide quit!  Jeff took the rod and I pulled the anchor as we were leaving after and we chased after the fish.  After 15 minutes or so we got it to the surface, nice 200+ lb lemon shark!  Got him up to the boat but he freaked out and broke our mono leader.  We ran back towards home to fish the last hour and had one other tarpon bite close to the marina we missed, and then headed back.  Good day nice to see some big fish while florida keys tarpon fishing in the back again!

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

6/17/11 Florida Keys backcountry fishing in June!

Well today was a warm one down here for our florida keys fishing charters!  Capt. Rick Stanczyk had a full day back in the everglades.  We started off hitting a few spots to try and catch some ladyfish for bait, plus of course trout, snapper, etc...  They were a little tough to find, after our 3rd or 4th spot though we bagged enough of them, plus picked away at some trout and keeper snappers.  We put the big rods out in hopes of tarpon, though no luck with them but did catch some nice lemon sharks!  We fished around flamingo area and then moved out off the cape to a good area for some florida tarpon fishing!  Capt. Skip Nielsen was flyfishing and said he had caught a couple on fly, so we anchored up and put baits out.  Saw some fish rolling but as soon as the tide started pouring in good, the water got real nasty and weedy and the fish quit showing.  We did catch another nice shark, and hooked a couple others we pulled off.  But we did catch this nice snook to make the end of our day!

6/13/11 Some big summer goliaths while florida keys fishing

Capt. Rick Stanczyk has fished the past few days in the islamorada backcountry.  Some nice snappers have been way out west in some of the close gulf areas, white holes, wrecks, etc...  Some goliaths have been out there as well we caught a nice one yesterday and had a couple others cut us off in structure.  A few other captains reported some in some other areas as well.  Today Capt. Rick also caught this nice 50 lber, along with several blacktip sharks, lemon sharks, and some BIG 150-200 lb nurse sharks.  We also jumped a couple of 50-75 lb tarpon, couldn't get the hooks to stay in, but good to see some in the backcountry with the wind laying down.  There was also some good action with ladyfish, trout, and jacks today as well.