4/18/17 Mid April Reef and Offshore fishing report

Sorry for skipping last weeks Islamorada fishing report, but I'm back in town and will have the weekly report up the rest of the spring and summer. The past week has been pretty windy in Islamorada, but it hasn't stopped all the boats from getting offshore, or atleast to the edge of the reef. The Spring time is a transitional time of year here, and the fishing changes day to day, but if you're ready for what's biting you can have a great day on the water. Earlier in the month there was a handful of days of great sailfishing, when they were "tailing" down a color change. The Reel McCoy and Kalex both got in on the action and had 11 releases on a single trip, and many boats had a handful of them. There was a couple cobia in the mix as well. The current died out, the wind switched a little, the water color changed, so those conditions faded, but I was happy to hear that some people experienced it. It could still happen again anytime the rest of the month or even next, we'll just have to wait and see. 

Some boats have continued to go offshore and the mahi are definitely starting to show up. They aren't thick yet, but a couple boats that braved it out had 8 - 10 fish yesterday, including schoolies and a few gaffers up to 12 lbs. Last week a few boats had some "slammers" over 20 lbs. It should only get better as we near summer. There has been some "football" blackfin tunas on the humps as well as just migrating in the gulfstream. Amberjacks are on the humps and wrecks as well, but a few spots are loaded with sharks so you have to be aggressive to get the fish up. 

The reef has been good for yellowtail snapper, with a few mangrove and mutton snapper in the mix. Grouper season opens May 1st, and everyone is hoping the grouper stick around. Almost all the boats that have bottom fished lately have reported releasing nice size black grouper with a couple red grouper. I think we will continue to see a couple sailfish here and there, but probably not with the consistency we see in the winter. The permit have been on a couple wrecks just oustide the reef, so if you're lucky and the school of fish is happy you might get in on the action. 

The Catch 22 made it out on a few daytime swordfish trips the last couple weeks, Catching 1 fish on each of their first two trips and pulling the hooks on a fish the last trip. The rest of the year is prime time to try your luck at a broadbill swordfish, and we have plenty of boats ready to give it a shot! 

Give the marina office a call at 305 664 2461 to book your next Islamorada Offshore fishing charter and we'll set you up with a great boat! Either fishing the reef or going offshore will be options the upcoming weeks! 

Tight Lines, 

Capt. Nick Stanczyk 

4/11/17 April Backcountry Fishing Report

April is moving right along and it's been full steam ahead tarpon fishing in the everglades and locally around Islamorada.  Fishing has been decent we are just coming off of a late season cold front that made fishing a little slower the last week/weekend, but water temperatures are getting back up to where they should be now.  Unfortunately the wind has been howling and is scheduled to keep doing so throughout the week, so this has made things a little less comfortable and also kept the water from really getting back up to wear the fish are often super happy.  I've tarpon fished pretty much all of my last several trips, today I had Carl and Buck and we caught a couple nice tarpon locally on a half day, and they also fished with me 4 days ago and each caught one that day as well though we had to fish all day for two bites.  Over the weekend return customer Chester fished with me with his nephew Ruben, and they caught two tarpon on Saturday, and a nice mutton snapper for dinner, and another tarpon on Sunday in the backcountry along with a couple sharks and some nice mangrove snappers for dinner.  Roy and Tye fished with me yesterday all day and we had a tough morning, not being able to find much for tarpon or sharks, we had bailed for a bit to try and catch some trout and caught a few though even that was tough at that point.  I asked them if they wanted to go for the home run and keep trying for tarpon, which they did, and it proved to be a good call as we caught several tarpon in the backcountry along with some big blacktips and a big lemon shark, all in the last couple hours of the day.  You can keep up with my personal daily tarpon reports at islamoradatarpon.com.  Capt. John Johansen has reported a steady tarpon bite locally in the evenings, as well as a few fish in the backcountry channels as well.  Capt. Skip Nielsen has had some tarpon action both locally and afar too.  Capt. Mark Hlis had a nice tarpon on fly today for angler Tom from Grand Rapids.  Capt. Chris Daly has had some good tarpon action locally around the bridges and some of the channels in the last week.  Capt. Gunner Guthrie has had some nice tarpon and good mangrove snappers lately, as well as some nice hogfish over the weekend when it slicked out saturday afternoon.  Capt. Mike Bassett caught a 'mud marlin' locally both the last two days as well as a big tarpon yesterday.  Capt.  Bill Bassett and Capt. Jim Willcox both had some tarpon locally several days ago too around the bridges.  As you can tell it's the tarpon time of year and most guides will be focusing on that primarly, though of course there are other options especially on the days when tarpon seem tough to catch so dont be afraid to ask.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

3/31/17 End of March deep sea fishing report

I'm currently out of town but I wanted to give everybody an updated fishing report for the recent deep sea fishing off Islamorada at the end of March 2017. Boats have been on the reef and wrecks for the most part, with a couple venturing further offshore. On the reef there's been a good bite of yellowtail snapper witha few mutton snapper in the mix. The gon fishin v had a mutton that weighed 18 lbs on a recent charter. Some king mackerel have been around too. There's been a lot of black grouper caught and released, hopefully they stick around till May 1st when season opens up again. Some cobia finally showed up for a few days, with fish in the 20 - 45 lb range. There's been a few sailfish around most days, but we are nearing the end of the season when we catch them with consistency. This is typical spring time fishing with a variety of fish being caught, and conditions changing on a daily basis. If the wind and current line up just right expect some good sailfish and cobia action. A few boats ran into some mahi, and we should only start seeing more each passing week. There was a good run of blackfin tuna both outside the reef and on the humps offshore. The Catch 22 caught a nice swordfish one day last week that weighed in at 139 lbs. Things have been busy at the marina but give them a call to get in on the action! 305 664 2461 to book your fishing charter!

Tight Lines 

Capt. Nick Stanczyk 

3/26/17 Late March backcountry fishin' report!

March is almost over it's hard to beleive but here it is.  The early spring has yielded some decent fishing overall.  The tarpon bite has been up and down, we had one hard late cold front about 10 days ago and that slowed them down for a little bit.  The last few days though things had picked right back up.  I myself had a banner day in the everglades, we had a very big day landing quite a few tarpon and putting many more in the air.  It was slick calm and the water temps had started to warm up nicely.  The last few days the wind kicked up again but the tarpon have still been around.  We caught a couple yesterday in the backcountry along with some sharks and plenty of trout, and today we caught a couple locally around town on a half day along with more sharks and a couple big jacks.  Previously I had taken a week or so off to welcome my son Felix into the world, he and mom are both very happy and health so we are thrilled.  Though elsewhere on the water Capt. Mike Venezia had reported some tarpon action locally around town too.  He also got a couple permit last week, one nice fish that was over 30 lbs!  There had been a few hogifsh on the patches too, he along with Capt. Dave Peck and Capt. John Johansen had reported a handful of hogfish along with a few snappers and porgies on the patch reefs.  It hasn't been red hot out there, but if you work around the various rocks and coral heads, you can usually pick a few quality fish and have some other rod bending action too.  In the backcountry the trout bite has been very good still, lots of good size trout in the bays.  Capt. Dave Sisung and Capt. Al Polofsky had some nice trout the other day, they also both caught tarpon in the backcountry a few days before that.  Capt. Bill Bassett ventured deep into the backcountry yesterday, 50 miles or more, and they said they had epic fishing for snook and redfish in very shallow water.  Capt. Jim Willcox had a nice bonefish yesterday morning.  Capt. Gunner Guthrie reported a couple tarpon locally around town this morning as well.  Capt. Skip Nielsen has had some good tarpon fishing as of late too, he also reported some monster bull sharks and goliath grouper in the gulf the other day.  He had a big goliath get eaten by the sharks too.  This coming week looks to be a good one - we have the winds lightening up and the waters warmed back up into the high 70 degree range.  A perfect recipe for good tarpon fishing!  There were plenty of fish in the backcountry the other day, and I saw a bunch today in a few areas that I fished locally.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

3/19/17 March Offshore/Reef fishing report

We had a pretty strong cold front last week with temperatures in the high 50's. I really was hoping it would spark the sailfish bite, but there was just a few here and there for the offshore fleet. The Reel McCoy had 3 releases one trip, a handful of boats had 1 fish on a couple trips, and a lot of boats put in a few hours a day targeting sailfish without any luck. If the current and wind line up just right we should see some big numbers if we get our "spring time tailing condition", but we can't predict the conditions and if/when it will happen. I'm sure we'll continue to see a few sails here and there. A lot of king mackerel moved in the past week, with a few really nice size ones in the mix. There's been some in the mid 30 lb class and Gimme Jimmy weighed a 40 lber. We've seen a few mahi and blackfin tuna as well. This time of year we usually see a little bit of everything, but not always a ton of one thing. There's been amberjacks on the wrecks and humps, as well as some sharks for fun. 

The bottom fishing has been very steady. Some boats have caught giant yellowtail snapper up to 6 lbs and mangrove snappers up to the same size! There's also been a few mutton snapper in the mix. I'm hoping the grouper stick around till May 1 st, because a lot of boats have reported catching and releasing some nice black and red grouper. A couple boats also found schools of cobia, and hopefully we see more and more of them the next few weeks. We've seen a ton of barracuda on the reef too. 

Give the marina office a call when you're ready to book your Islamorada Offshore fishing charter and we'll set you up! 305 664 2461 

Tight Lines 

Capt. Nick Stanczyk