3/13/17 Early and Mid March Deep Sea Fishing Report

We're in full swing for "season" now here in Islamorada. Lots of boats have been fishing every day as tons of people are down on spring break and on vacation. A couple weeks ago we had a few days of very windy weather where all the boats canceled their trips, but the past few days have been nice. We have a late season cold front on its way now, but it shouldn't affect us too bad. Now that it's spring here we are seeing a wide variety of fish on the edge of the reef. For a few days we had a color edge with blue water meeting dirty greenish/white water. There was strong east current on the blue side and very little current on the dirty side. We call this a tailing conditiion, and tons of different fish migrate down the waves.  We saw a pretty good bite of sailfish for four days, a few cobia, some scattered mahi, a few wahoo, blackfin tuna, and the Relentless even caught a big white marlin on it! The conditions faded the last couple days with the wind switch and current dying out, but now that we are in the transitional period of fishing here each day can be very different. 

The bottom bite has been good almost every trip. A couple days the yellowtail bite slowed down, but most of the boats haven't had any problems catching a bucket full for dinner. We've seen a few more mutton snapper than I expected lately as well, and a couple real big ones in the mix. Grouper season opens May 1st, so we have been releasing the black and red grouper we've been catching. Amberjacks are open for harvest now, so we've seen a handful on the dock since March 1st. A lot of people release the amberjacks too. 

Way offshore I made it out on two daytime swordfish trips. One trip was very slow without any bites, and the other trip we fought a big fish for 45 minutes and unfortunately pulled the hook. We did get a few big queen snapper one trip too.  I'm hoping this cold front sparks the sailfish bite again the next few days. There's been some big sharks caught and released lately and we've seen quite a few king mackerel on the dock. Give the marina office a call at 305 664 2461 when you're ready to book you're Islamorada Fishing Trip and we'll set you up on a great boat! 

Tight Lines

Capt. Nick Stanczyk 

3/10/17 March Backcountry Fishing Report

March is here and it's busy busy busy!  Lots of families down doing the spring break thing, and just about everything on the water that floats has been out there.  We've had some ups and downs with the weather, just getting back to some nice lighter wind days after having a few days of it blowing 30+mph, and a few more with it being 20+.  The air temperatures didn't drop dramtically, but with all the wind the backcountry waters dropped almost 15 degrees!  This obviously had some serious impacts on the fishing, though even in on the hard blowing some guides were able to get out and get it done.  I myself had some good days of snapper fishing around the islands during the wind, we got some nice size snappers a few days too up to 20 inches!   Also had some juvenile tarpon action which was a nice bonus, some nice 15-20 lb fish.  Capt. Mike Venezia also had some baby tarpon action, some very juvenile ones of only a few pounds - don't see those very often!  Capt. Jim Willcox, Capt. Bill Bassett, and Capt. Mike Bassett reported some good snook and drum fishing the last couple days since the wind stopped cranking.  The snook didn't seem to mind the water temperature drop luckily, and of course the redfish and drum love that, so it was a little bit more like winter time fishing.  Capt. Skip Nielsen got a nice tarpon a few days ago despite the very cold water too.  Today we had some good action with trout and snappers in the bay on a half day, as did Capt. Jeff Oughton, Capt. Sid Bryant, and Capt. Jeff Beeler.  Before the crazy blows, we had some decent mixed bag days.  I had John and Jan Sholze out for 3 days, we caught a bunch of mackerel one morning, and then two tarpon later in the afternoon along with a variety of sharks including a nice hammerhead.  The following day was a bunch of trout, and a handful of snook and a nice redfish.  Before that the mackerel were still biting very well.  Mackerel could likely still be on the 'fishing menu' with the chillier water temps for a while longer.  Looks like in the middle of next week we are getting into the mid 60s again, so they will probably enjoy  that.  Not good news for our tarpon fishery with the impending cold, but hopefully it'll start getting right again maybe by next weekend.  This weekend though it may be a possibility, as the winds are light and things are warming up.  There is plenty of fish to be had, give us a call if you are around and we may be able to get you out on the water.  Evening tarpon trips could be a possibility starting now too.  305-664-2461

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Late February 2017 Reef Fishing Report

February 2017 came to a close yesterday but not without a few good fish hitting the dock! We could a nice 35 lb kingfish aboard the Catch 22, and both the Kalex and Reel McCoy each had a sailfish release. There has been a lot of kingfish the past week here, mostly in the 4 - 12 lb range, but you never know when that big smoker is gonna bite! 

 

The sailfish bite has definitely been on and off the past week. For example, the Catch 22 fished 3 days in a row, losing 1 the first day, releasing 9 of 10 the second, and losing a couple the last day. Making the bites count is the most important thing, and you never really know what day they are going to snap! The Indigenous also had a good day last week with his angler catching his first ever sailfish (4 of them) and then the next day reported a few bites but unfortunately they all got away. A little bit of luck always helps, but the tough days make you appreciate the good days. Most of the boats have been getting 1 - 2 sailfish bites per full day trip if they put their time in. It looks like we have another strong cold front coming this weekend, so hopefully that stirs up the sailfish and gets them going. We haven't seen the cobia like expected, but hopefully any day they show up! 

 

The snapper bite has been pretty decent most days on the reef with yellowtails, mangroves, and a couple muttons. Offshore there's been some big amberjack up to 60 lbs as well as some almaco jack up to 30 lbs. We've seen a couple blackfin tuna the last few days, but nothing like it was a week ago with the calm weather when some boats had 10 - 15 fish. The bait that was plentiful disspeared with the wind, but you never know when it will show back up and the condiditions may get right to make the run back offshore to the humps. There's also been a stray wahoo here and there and hopefully around the next full moon we saw some more.

 

Way offshore I made it out on 1 daytime swordfish trip before the wind started and Tom and Joey landed their first ever swordfish, around 100 lbs. The spring time is when some of the biggest swords have been caught off Islamorada, so if the weather is right (not super windy), keep that in the back of your mind if you want to take a gamble. 

 

Give the marina office a call at 305 664 2461 when you're ready to book your next Islamorada Fishing charter. Remember we are in "season" now, so the sooner you call to book the more likely we can accommodate your schedule. 

Capt. Nick Stanczyk 

 

2/22/17 February Backcountry Fishing Report in Islamorada

The warm weather trend has continued throughout most of February and it's continued to feel like an early spring here.  Today we had kind of a nasty day with heavy rain and wind, though we probably needed the rain, but it was a good day for me to have off.  The last week or so the majority of my trips have been with 3 people, and so ive been sticking to the same routine most days (more open water fishing) and we've been having good luck.  That has revolved around fishing for big things - tarpon, sharks, and the occasional 'mud marlin'.  Since the water temps have stayed in the mid 70s, most those fish have been fairly active every day.  I think only one day did we not get a tarpon bite, though we had plenty of them around the boat, just the fishing window we caught there was no tide and it was slick calm, and they were in a finicky mood.  Most of the other days it hasn't been red hot fishing but if you put your time in, you could get a bite or two out of the silver king and we landed at least one most days.  Sharks were very active too mostly blacktips, and we caught some big 'mud marlin' while doing that too.  Out in the gulf the mackerel fishing has still been pretty good.  On windier days it's been a better bite, but even when slick calm we've been able to pick away at them.  A few days ago we also found a lot of tripletail which was nice to see because previous to that there had only been a handful around it seemed.  We caught one that was 12.5 lbs, one of the biggest I've caught in a long time.  We caught a few snappers around some of the islands on a few trips, and some nice lane snappers out on the ocean side patches one trip too, and that's been about it.  I'll likely be focusing on tarpon fishing mostly from here on through the summer, barring any extreme late cold fronts.  A few days ago Capt. Chris Daly had a nice 40 lb cobia fishing in the backcountry/gulf.  Capt. Jim Willcox picked away at a few redfish, trout, and other things deep in the everglades with Doug Bentz and co, and also reported some monster bull sharks in the gulf a few days ealier.  Capt. Mike Venezia caught a big 300 lb goliath grouper in the gulf a few days ago, and it had coughed up a dead lionfish and a dead cormorant!  Last week he also reported a decent bite of snook and a few redfish/drum in the everglades.  Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti reported a few snook and a nice juvenile tarpon in the everglades on the 20th.  Capt. John Johansen has reported some bigger tarpon action in the backcountry channels too, plus plenty of shark activity.  Looks like we have a little bit of west wind the next couple of days as we are experiencing a very minor cold front, may not be great for fishing for certain things but hopefully won't mess us up too bad.  Water temperatures shouldn't change much and our early spring should keep on going!  Give us a call if you want to get out on the water, it's definitely busy season here now and March is always cranking with spring break etc...  305-664-2461

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Jim and Gwen pose with her nice tarpon!

Eric shows off a nice spanish mackerel.

Brandon with his size larger tarpon.

Eric shows off this lunker 12.5 lb tripletail!

Big 'mud marlin' coming up from the depths.

Redfish and Snook combo!

Juvenile tarpon are always fun on light tackle.

Redfish in the backcountry creeks.

 

Cobia in the boat!

2/21/17 Mid February Offshore Fishing Report

We are moving right along through February 2017 here in Islamorada, Florida Keys. We've had a mix of weather, a few days with cooler temperatures, some days with wind, and it looks like some rain for tomorrow, but should clear back up after that. The Islamorada Bartenders sailfish tournament took place eight days ago, and the "Broad Minded" took 2nd place with releases and the Cloud Nine took third place with 3 releases. The sailfish bite has continued to be the same so far this year, with a few fish around most days, with a couple better days and slower days in the mix each week. 

We finally saw a few cobia hanging up the past week when we had some calm weather. It's not the numbers we usually see, but hopefully we start seeing more and more. There's been a few african pompano around the wrecks, a good number of king mackerel, a few wahoo, some mutton snapper, and some blackfin tuna. On the reef we've seen yellowtail and mangrove snapper. Also a couple of goliath grouper. 

Further offshore a couple boats made the long run to the marathon hump and it paid off, with multiple boats catching nice blackfin tuna in the 15 - 30 lb range. There was also a few mahi, which was a bonus. There's been some deep drop fish including queen snapper, blackbelly rosefish, vermillion snapper, and a few yelloweye snapper too. We did a couple swordfish trips, catching 2 fish on one trip and missing two bites the following day. The Catch 22 also fished a swordfish trip last week but reported no bites. 

Give the marina office a call at 305 664 2461 when you're ready to book your next fishing trip and we'll find a great boat for you. Remember we have lodging options here too! 

Tight Lines, 

Capt. Nick Stanczyk