11/29/17 Islamorada Fishing November Report for the backcountry

Well November is almost over and while it started out seeming like we may have had an early start to winter with a late october cold front that dropped temps down into the mid 60s, things quickly warmed back up again and it's been the warm fall like we've had the last several years.  Fishing has been fairly good in the backcountry however though some of the usual cooler weather options haven't been quite as consistent.  Yesterday I had my dad, Richard Stanczyk Sr, marina manager Stephen Byrd, and friend and captain Dave Peck out for some fun fishing.  We did some investigating of areas deep in the 'glades that I haven't fished much since Hurricane Irma.  We got lucky and found loads of fish, it was honestly the best day of fishing I'd had since the storm!  We boated a ton of redfish and snook, and found them in multiple spots.  Several nice size fish mixed in to.  It was just one of those dream days.  That was a couple days ago and I'm not sure if it'll stay that way but looked like snook fishing at least was decent today too.  Capt. Jim Willcox, Capt. Mike Bassett, Capt. Skip Nielsen, and Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti all had reported snook in the backcountry.  Capt. Jim also had a bonefish today.  There was a bit of rain around that captains had to spend some time avoiding, or fishing through depending how tough you were!  Over the weekend I had Paulie and his son Terry out for a full days fishing.  Paulie was 90 years old and I was glad to see him getting out for the day!  We didn't catch a ton of fish, but overall we had a pretty good day.  Paulie landed several snook and got the two largest ones for sure.  Terry caught several as well.  We had to work for the half dozen or so that we caught.  We spent the last couple hours out in the gulf and this is the first day I've had good spanish mackerel fishing.  We chummed hard and fished both live baits and pilchards.  I think we landed 8 or so mackerel, and a mix of ladyfish, bluefish, and blue runners.  Though we probably had 20 mackerel bites they just weren't staying on the hook very well.  This was encouraging as the spanish mackerel fishing is a big part of our winter time fishery.  It should get better with some more cold weather.  Capt. Bill Bassett yesterday had a few redfish and 1 nice snook, though he said they got beat by several other large snook so it was quality of quantity... but the quality won the fishing battle.   I know patch reef fishing had been fairly good too before thanksgiving.  Capt. Skip Nielsen had an outstanding catch with a nice black grouper on light 15 lb spin tackle.  I myself had good action with various snappers for dinner, and caught a couple local snook and some jack crevelles before leaving town for thanksgiving.  December is close and we are prepared for a busy xmas week.  If you are planning on coming down try to make your reservations early... guides book up fast between xmas and new years, as do hotel rooms.  With limited availability of hotel rooms with cheeca, islander, and post card inn closed, you don't want to be left hanging.  The next couple weeks before xmas though, guides and accommodations are likely readily available.  305-664-2461

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

Happy Thanksgiving and Mid November Reef fishing report!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! 

Time is flying by as We are already past the 3rd week of November 2017 here in Islamorada at Bud n' Mary's Marina. The property continues to get cleaned up and the outside dock is getting fixed up more and more every week since hurricane IRMA. We have all of our motel rooms and ocean front house available for accommodations and we will have our houseboats ready to rent next month! Most of the offshore boats at the marina have been fishing the reef and wrecks the past week, and will continue to do so the next few months. There's been a little bit of everything caught while livebaiting and the bottom bite has been steady. The boats have been picking away at the sailfish, not a ton around the last week, but a lot of boats have had 1 - 2 releases per trip. We should get another good push of them any day like we saw a couple weeks back. There was also a couple schools of cobia found, which is early for them, so it was a nice surprise!!! 

 

Other fish that have been eating the livebait have included kingfish, a few blackfin tuna, a couple mahi, barracuda, sharks, and more! On the bottom the yellowtail snapper bite has been very good most days, although yesterday the current was hardly moving and made for tough conditions. We've seen some really nice mutton snapper, mangrove snapper, and a few grouper as well. We can keep grouper until the end of December, so now is a perfect time to go bottom fishing! 

 

Way offshore I swordfished one trip last week and we got one bite at the end of the day and put a keeper in the boat. One bite separates the good days from the slow days while swordfishing. This is usually prime time so I'm not sure why the bite is slower than it should be, but hopefully we start getting multiple shots per day soon! 

 

Give the marina office a call at 305 664 2461 when you're ready to book your Islamorada Fishing Trip and we'll set you up with a great boat and crew! We also have motel rooms available!!! 

Tight Lines, 

Capt. Nick Stanczyk 

11/16/17 November Backcountry Fishing in Islamorada

Well November is rolling by and it's still been fairly warm for the most part though we did just have a slight cool down, and look to have another dip into the high 60s perhaps on Sunday evening.  Though overall still fairly warm!  Fishing has been decent really with some good action some times and tougher fishing at others.  We've still been dealing with pockets of nasty water, likely from much of the rotting vegetation from IRMA, but much of it seems to be making its way out offshore and into the gulf so hopefully that'll be getting to be less and less.  Earlier this week for instance we had stellar fishing in the backcountry with a lot of snook, got a nice redfish, and a handful of nice trout, all in about 3 hours of fishing in 3 different spots.  That was with Gus and Rick.  All those areas looked about as pretty as I'd seen it since the storm as far as the condition of the water went.  Then a few days later I took a friend Peter for just a fun trip to do a little exploring.... after the wind swung north/northwest and blew a bit, all those areas turned more of a darker chocolate color with a silty look to it, and the fish were gone completely - we struggled to catch one snook in about 3 hours and fished half a dozen spots.  The previous weekend I had Andy and his stepson Trey, they each caught snook, Andy got a nice tarpon, and the following day plenty of action with snappers, jacks, ladyfish, and mackerel.  Anyways on days like this it helps to have a full day booked as it will give you time to run to completely different areas where there may be cleaner water, and the fish can be stacked up there.  Capt. Jim Willcox the last few days has found some redfish.  Yesterday he said it was very good and they found a load of them, after struggling to find much in the creeks where he normally likes to fish, so having the full day/extra time paid off big!  Today wasn't quite as good but they did find a few reds and got a few black drums as well.  Capt. Mike Bassett over the weekend had found some quality snook in the everglades, not catching tons but he did say most were nice size fish.  Capt. Chris Daly said the same thing yesterday, at the end of his day the tide quit ripping and water cleaned up a bit, and in the last hour they caught several nice snook after paying their dues the rest of the day with just a handful of fish.  Capt. Bill Bassett had a few snook and redfish the other day sight fishing around flamingo, they didn't see a ton but were able to get a few on bait.  They were trying to throw the fly but not much luck with that.  He also found a big ball of large jack crevelle on the patches a few days earlier and landed a nice 25 lber on light tackle after a 40 minute fight!  Capt. Mike Venezia had a nice snook yesterday fishing with local Betsy Bullard.  Capt. Skip Nielsen had a good handful of snook the other day as well as a tarpon at the bridges and a few jack crevelles.  It's been a little rough to get on the patches this week on most days though if it lays down that should become a good option again.  Not much on the spanish mackerels yet in the gulf though hopefully they show up soon, when we get a little more cold weather it should be on.  As you can see there is good fishing to be had but some days you need to have patience and keep working at it.  If the water isn't pretty or the tides not right, it may be slow, but your captains will know the best places to be and when to be there.  Week days are fairly slow right now too so that also helps as you can usually get where you want to go without worrying about someone else being there.  Give us a call if you'd like to get out on the water!  305-664-2461

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

11/11/17 Early November Offshore fishing report

Things are getting better each week at Bud n' Mary's Marina since Hurricane IRMA. The outside dock where the houseboats are usually tied up should be back together within a few weeks and we will have some more accommodations available for season. The last couple weeks most boats have fished the reef but a few have still verntured offshore. The Fall is a transitional time here so we see a little bit of everything, but every day is different. The first few days of November we saw some great catches of sailfish, with boats having as many as 7 releases! This week was a little slower on the sailfish but there has still been a couple caught each day. They should get more consistent as each week passes. There's been plenty of action with snapper, mostly yellowtails with a few mangrove and muttons mixed. Also a couple red and black grouper. The kingfish are just showing up and we've seen a few "smokers' over 25 lbs, but most have been in the 5 - 10 lb range. We've also been seeing a few cobia on the wrecks and plenty of barracuda on top of the reef. There's been a couple blackfin tuna caught on the edge of the reef, and some offshore on the humps. The tuna bite on the humps has been on and off, a few days they bit very well and some of the days the bite was non existent. The mahi are thinning out, but there's still being a few caught. 

 

Way offshore the swordfish bite was good a week ago but it did slow down the last couple trips. On the Broad Minded we released a small fish one trip and the next day kept one for dinner around 90 lbs and let a 100 lber go. The gimme jimmy also had a handful of bites one trip and released a juvenile swordfish. We did some deep dropping in the 800 - 1000' depth a couple of the days and caught barrelfish and blackbelly rosefish. 

 

Give the marina office a call at 305 664 2461 when you're ready to come down to Islamorada and go fishing!!! We have motel rooms and boats available!!! 

Capt. Nick Stanczyk 

11/8/17 November Islamorada Backcountry Fishing Report

Well November is moving right along and it looked like we were going to have a bit of an early winter at the end of October with a pretty cold, early front.  However since then things have calmed down and warmed right back up!  This week the temperatures have been in the low to mid 80s during the day, with fairly light winds... almost summer like conditions except you can feel a hint of fall in the air, not the super humid 90+ degrees we get then.  Fishing has been very good for the most part.  I myself have had several days off since last week as my wife is out of town and taking care of the little one at home, but from what I've been seeing I've been itching to get out there.  My last day out was last Friday, we had a decent catch of snook landing 8 and missing a few others in the everglades.  We had banner fishing before that during the late october cold snap, with some redfish, snook, and black drum.  Jon Patten had a nice 20 lb black drum one of those days, and my dad and his friend Peter had some nice snook, redfish, and black drum the following day.  Capt. Jim Willcox has gotten into fish both in the everglades and closer to home.  He's been having some nice snook back there as well as a few redfish here and there.  He got some bonefish a few days ago too for an angler who was looking for bonefish and snook... what a day for him.  Also a cobia on one day as well.  Capt. Clyde Upchurch has had some good snapper and snook action around some of the bay islands in the everglades.  Capt. Jeff Beeler said the snook and tarpon deep in the everglades on his full day trips the last few days were very good.  Capt. Mike Bassett had stellar patch fishing yesterday with a variety of snappers including lanes, yellowtails, and mangroves.  They also had some nice bar jacks and his angler was rewarded with a 30 lb permit!  Capt. Gunner Guthrie was out for fun over the weekend and also reported good patch action and got a smaller permit as well.  Capt. Mike Walter had a half day on the patches over the weekend with some big mangrove snappers eating pilchards!  Capt. John Johansen and Capt. Bill Bassett have had some good patch action as well this week.  Yes... the patch fishing is where it has been at if you want practically guaranteed fish and some dinner to take home.  My dad Capt. Richard Stanczyk Sr. had some good bonefish fishing last night landing 4 bonefish with his daughter in law Sara Stanczyk.  He also got Rich Hastings, bud n marys employee, 4 bonefish and his first permit over the weekend too!  Stake up bonefish fishing has been pretty good - but you have to find the clean water to have success with that.  I've also seen some other guides in town have been finding some hungry tarpon in many areas.  With the calm, warm conditions they can pop right back up like it's summer time no matter what time of year.  Now this condition may not hold for long but at least from the forecast I've seen we have no cold weather in the immediate future, so it's definitely possible for the coming week or two possibly.  Anyways yes the fishing is very good the last week or so as things have readjusted to 'warm weather' condtions after our front at the end of October.  The gulf spanish mackerel fishing has not been very good as of yet from reports I've heard, but that can fire up as soon as we get some more cold weather.  But as you can see there are plenty of options worth trying.  Come on down and let's go fishing!  305-664-2461

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