12/18/17 Deep Sea fishing report for Mid December

We had a strong cold front here in the Florida Keys last week with Temperatures in the Mid 50's! Sure that doesn't sound cold to a lot of people but when you run on the boat and the water is chilled it makes a cold ride for us South Florida Folk! The good thing about the Front is that it brought some sailfish with it! The ballyhoo were thick on the reef and there was a few good days of sailfishing! A lot of boats had 2-5 bites per trip, and if you caught them you had a great day. Sure you won't always catch them all, but if you get a few shots you know you're in the game! The Catch 22 had an epic day releasing 14 sailfish all sight fishing on top of the reef! That means they never put a bait in the water until they saw a fish! 

 

Other reef fish have included a few wahoo, king mackerel, yellowtail mangrove and mutton snapper, black grouper, red grouper, cero mackerel, barracuda and more. There was one day where the cobia showed up on the rays and multiple boats had their limit including a few big ones in the 45 - 60 lb range! We saw a few amberjack and african pompano on the wrecks as well. Grouper are closed for harvest starting January 1st, but that means we still have a couple weeks to get them! Out a little deeper there have been vermillion snapper,  yelloweye snapper, and queen snapper. 

Way offshore We just had the best swordfish bite of the year! Yesterday we caught a 200 lb swordfish, lost a 150 lber by the boat, and tagged a 50 lber. The day before we caught a giant swordfish that weighed in at 389 lbs! It was an epic battle on stand up gear for Dale, but in the end he hung in there and put the fish in the boat. The day before that we caught 5 of 6 swordfish from 40 - 100 lbs! It was nice to see all the action so late in the year as well as having the weather cooperate. 

 

We are hooking up our houseboats this week so if you're looking for a place to stay on your Christmas Break check out our lodging options right at the marina! Give us a call to set up your florida keys fishing trip! 305 664 2461! 

Capt. Nick Stanczyk 

12/15/17 Mid December Backcountry Fishing Post Cold Front!

Well we just had a good blast of cold weather here in the Florida Keys.  Things dropped down into the high 50s for several nights.  Though after the front we had a couple days of flat calm gorgeous weather.  This was a recipe for some great backcountry fishing in the everglades!  The snook, redfish, and black drum bite was on fire for sure.  I had several good days this past week.  Pat had a great day with me the day of the front catching snook, redfish, black drum, and a tarpon!  It was blowing 30 in the morning but we ventured out and it was well worth it.  The day after that I had Alec and Zack who were pro soccer players in Atlanta and Alec is the brother in law to my wifes cousin.  They had a great day with a lot of black drum, a few reds, a couple snook, and a few sheepshead.  Also got a couple triple tail on the way home and saw plenty more of them.  Then I had my dad and Stephen for a day of fun fishing, lots of snook and black drum and a couple redfish.  Then just spent the last two days with Pam and Lars.  We had stellar fishing and the best all week.  The big snook showed up and we caught quite a few both days up to 12 lbs.  Lots of smaller snook as well.  Plenty of nice redfish on day one too, and some black drum and Lars and Pam each got a tarpon to complete a backcountry SLAM!  A few reds in the morning on day two, then mostly black drum in the afternoon, with plenty of snook mixed in too and a lot of nice seatrout.  Lars got another tarpon on day two as well.  It was just stellar fishing with the right conditions.  Looks to be on a warming trend over the next week with north/easterly winds, but conditions looks good not too windy and then a couple calm days again on tuesday and wednesday perhaps.  Capt. Mike Bassett had a couple good days with his good customer Lonnie they had nice snook, redfish, and drum in the backcountry.  The day before he had the same plus a tarpon.  Capt. Skip Nielsen had some good reef fishing with some nice kingfish off the edge yesterday.  Patch reef fishing has been pretty good though with the cold the last few days sometimes its been better a little deeper, or wherever you can find cleaner, warmer water usually away from the bridges or bay currents.  Christmas week is coming soon but this next week is usually fairly slow... a good time to get into the backcountry before the crowds come!  Give us a call we can help you set it up.  305-664-2461

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

 

 

 

12/9/17 December offshore and reef fishing report

Winter time fishing is kicking in here at Bud n' Mary's Marina. The Islamorada Sailfish tournament took place last weekend and team Relentless finished in 2nd place and team Kalex took 3rd place over the 3 day event! Congrats!!! Over the past week a lot of boats have had 1 - 3 sailfish per trip and a few of the days boats had between 6 - 8 releases. If sailfish is on your bucket list now is a great time to try to scratch it off!!! 

We saw a handful of wahoo in the 25 - 45 lb range the past week as well. Around the full moon in the winter months is a good bet for a shot at a 'hoo. There's been a few kingfish, tuna, and mahi on the live baits as well. Anchored down on the reef we've seen plenty of yellowtail snapper, some mutton snapper, and a few grouper. Remember our shallow water grouper season closes at the the end of December, so this is the last month to try to catch a couple for dinner until May! The Gimme Jimmy had an epic trip where the crushed the mutton snapper with the biggest one going 16 lbs! 

Way offshore I swordfished 5 trips since the start of December. The first trip we had one bite and got a monster! Young Blayze battled a 315 lber for his birthday trip! The next two trips were very slow without any swordfish, but yesterday and the day before they really turned on! We caught 3 fish on both trips, keeping 1 each trip and releasing the rest of them. One fish was 100 lbs and the other was 140 lbs. The deep drop bottom bite was slower way out there as well, but we did manage a few rosefish one trip. 

Give the Marina office a call at 305 664 2461 to book your next Islamorada Fishing Charter!!! We have rooms available and the fish are biting!! 

Tight Lines

Capt. Nick Stanczyk 

12/7/17 December Backcountry Fishing in Islamorada

December is cruising right along and so far it's still been unseasonably warm.  That means we've had a little bit of everything going on as far as the species count go.  But looks like this weekend winter is coming.  It's suppose to get down into the mid 50s saturday night, stay there as another reinforcing front comes in tuesday night to keep it there.  Brrrr!  This should be a good thing overall for our fishery, I'm sure both the sailfish offshore as well as drum, mackerel, and other winter time specimens in the backcountry will be ready for it.  While Saturday may be a bust for fishing (suppose to rain, and be blowing hard from south to northwest as the front comes in), sunday should be all good for fishing.  While still windy and cold, it's suppose to be due north wind and the rain should dry up.  This could be a recipe for 'banner day' type fishing in the everglades and I'm sure this coming week will produce some good days.  As for the last week, I've gotten out a few days thankfully.  Fishing has been pretty good too!  Last sunday we had a great half day of fishing, getting in on some nice mangrove snappers for dinner and finding a good school of redfish and snook in the backcountry.  It was a surprising find but great to see, as many of you know the redfish have been harder to come by when it's not very cold in recent years.  We caught about a dozen reds, and one nice snook.  Since then the tides have been higher in that area, but the last couple days we caught plenty of snook back there, and also got our limit of jumbo mangroves the last two days.  We had great fishing in the gulf on our full day a couple days ago in the afternoon too, with plenty of size large spanish mackerel, blue runners, big ladyfish, and a few lane snappers too.  Capt. Sid Bryant has reported some good spanish mackerel fishing as well in the near gulf.  Capt. Skip Nielsen did as well, and he also got some nice snook around cape sable the last few days.  His anglers were also rewarded with a surprise permit yesterday on a very nice afternoon as the weather slicked out.  Capt. John Johansen has been fishing local and had good mangrove snapper action on the patch reefs.  Capt. Bill Bassett caught some spanish mackerel and jack crevelles close by on an afternoon half day trip today.  Capt. Jim Willcox had some snook several days ago in the backcountry, and has been picking away at the bonefish on the local islamoada flats.  Speaking of bonefish, Capt. Richard Stanczyk Sr. has had some phenomenal afternoon fishing for them.  He along with Capt. Vic Gaspeny had a couple nights where they landed 11 total bones, and sevearl nice size fish in the 6 lb range too!  All in all fishing has been pretty good as you can see, though as stated things are gonna get shaken up a little with the cold weather incoming.  But definitely as things settle back down and the winds calm some, we should have some very good fishing.  Give the marina a call if you are looking to get out fishing, we have guides ready to go!  305-664-2461

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

End of November 2017 Deep Sea Fishing Report

Another month of fishing has came to end here in Islamorada but we sure saw some great catches the last few days of the month! The Catch 22 released 8 sailfish one trip and the Cloud Nine released 9 sailfish one trip! It's not like that every day, but if you're in the right spot at the right time you can see some great action! A lot of other boats have had 1 - 3 sailfish releases per trip. 

Other reef fish have included king mackerel, black grouper, mutton snapper, yellowtail and mangrove snapper, barracuda, sharks, and a couple mahi and blackfin tuna. Out a little deeper there has been vermillion snapper and a few ambjeracks too.

On the Broad Minded I've made it out on a few daytime swordfish charters the past week. Last trip we tagged and released one small swordfish, a couple days before that we caught a double header swordfish, keeping one and tagging a smaller one, we also had a bonus blackfin tuna. Last weekend we had a trip with one keeper swordfish, and the other day we caught a big blue marlin! I've caught 3 blue marlin while swordfishing the last 11 years, but this one took the bait at almost 1500'! We thought we had a giant swordfish on, but after a 2.5 hour fight up came a worn out blue marlin. We usually release the occasional marlin we catch here, but since he didn't look good we decided to bring it home to eat instead of feed it to the sharks. We also stopped on the way home for some deep dropping bottom fishing and put some barrelfish and rosefish in the boat. 

Give the marina office a call at 305 664 2461 when you're ready to book your Islamorada fishing charter and we'll set it up. Don't forget we have rooms available to stay in! 

Capt. Nick Stanczyk