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

1/30/11 - Backcountry variety day! Big Black drum, reds, trout, snappers, and more!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk had Richard Arluck and his family out, Mike and Dave, today on Saturday 1/30/11.  They were visiting down from Miami and wanted some action and good stuff to eat!  They headed back towards the cape area around 8:00 and arrived around 9:30.  The tide had just stopped falling and they fished a deep area around the shoreline.  Soon as the tide started trickling in, they were catching plenty of black drum, sheepshead, redfish, ladyfish, even a couple trout and pompano!  Shrimp on jigs did the trick, and it was bites on every cast for a while!  Good action there for a couple of hours!  Once the tide started really ripping and some poirposes showed up, they decided to take a break and eat lunch.  After that they headed out towards the edge of the gulf off sprigger bank and snapper fished in some holes.  It took some looking around, but eventually they got into them real thick and caught plenty of keepers, as well as some small groupers which they released.  The weather as absolutely gorgeous this afternoon, light winds and the sun with cool air - just right!!!  Tons of action and probably caught 15 different species of fish!

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

1/24/11 - Reds, trout, and ladies - eating the fly!

Capt Jim Willcox fished with Kim, Andreas, & Rasmus from Denmark today. They caught multiple trout, reds, pompano, & lady fish, all on bait & on fly. The highlight of the day was Rasmus's first red on fly!  Capt. Rick Stanczyk also reported catching many reds, trout, ladyfish, and a mackerel and bluefish on his half day!

1/21/11 + 1/22/11 Backcountry and gulfside half days!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk had his regulars Lee and Rob down from the NJ area.  They were glad to get out of dodge leaving the cold weather and snow behind to come and visit to do some islamorada fishing.  We fished two half days, the first day we ran in the back and fished some ditches and runoffs, catching trout, ladyfish, some little pompano, and got into some thick redfish!  Rob caught some pompano on fly as well!  Lots of action and rod bending.  The next day we did something different, ran on the edge of the gulf and caught some mackerels. Got them going pretty good, caught some on fly again, and also put some out for some black tip sharks.  Got one to the boat and broke off a couple others, very fun and exciting watching them go airborne and spin like a torpedo!  It was Rob's first so he was very stoked!  We then hit a little wreck and caught some mangrove snappers for lunch for them before they headed back towards home!  They said they can't wait to come back and do it again hopefully later this year!!!