Offshore fishing report for early December

It's December here in Islamorada and that Means it's time for our sailfish tournaments to start! Today the 52nd annual Islamorada Sailfish Tournament starts so we wish our boats the best of luck! It's over on Sunday so we'll see who has the most releases then. We've seen some great days of sailfishing the past week, but a few days have still been slow. They bite good one day and then there's just a few caught the next day. It should get more consistent each week now here in December. The Hey Papa had an amazing trip last week where they caught 13 in a single trip! A few other boats have had 4 - 6 releases, and a lot of boats have had 1-2 releases per trip. There's been some blackfin tuna, wahoo, and we had a couple days with some late season mahi. On the anchor we've seen mutton snapper, a few grouper, and quite a few yellowtail and mangrove snapper. The king mackerel are moving in and we should see some more once we get another cold front. The Relentless also found some cobia yesterday and had a few keepers. Give the marina office a call at 305 664 2461 if you'd like to book a trip and we'll set you up on a great boat. I fished 2 swordfish trips and we lost a couple the first trip but on the second trip angler Don DeLeon caught and released a juvenile broadbill on a spinning rod in 1600'! 

Tight Lines,

Capt. Nick Stanczyk 

11/26/14 Late November Reef Fishing Report

I've been slacking on the fishing reports lately but it's not because we haven't been catching fish! Some boats have had great days sailfishing the last couple weeks, and most of the days there were atleast a handful caught amongst the fleet. And if sailfish aren't what you're after we've had action with king mackerel, yellowtail snapper, mangrove snapper, mutton snapper, red grouper, gag grouper, black grouper, blackfin tuna, a few mahi, barracuda, amberjack, and a couple wahoo! The Warbird had a great trip catching 20 mahi one day last week, but season is definitely coming to an end for them, so it will probably just be a few here and there on most trips. This time of year the boats have been anchoring down and bottom fishing, slow trolling live baits, and kite fishing with live baits. The most sailfish we've seen caught so far this month in a single trip was 7 aboard the Relentless, the Kalex and Hey Papa each had a day with 6 releases, and a handful of boats have had 5 releases. In all honesty any day you release a sailfish is a good day though! The Islamorada Sailfish Tournament takes place on Dececember, 4, 5 and 6, so we are excited to see how the Bud n' Mary's Boats do! It's the first leg of the Islamorada Gold Cup Series. Unfortunately we've had some windy weather the past week and some boats canceled trips when the wind hit 22 - 25 knots. Hopefully the wind lets up the next few days and all of the boats start getting back out. I made it out on a couple swordfish trips last week and we managed 1 swordfish on one trip and lost 2 on the other trip. Give the office a call at 305 664 2461 when you're ready to plan your next Islamorada Fishing Vacation and we'll set you up with a great boat and a place to stay! The Miss Islamordada Party Boat has fished most days the past week, and they've been catching the usual bottom fish as well as had an big african pompano one trip and a 30 lb kingfish the other day as well. Remember Kev's Cafe is open at the marina at 6 a.m. so if you want to eat breakfast and/or order lunch get there early or give him a call at 305 664 4500. His menu is listed on our website. 

Tight Lines, 

Capt. Nick Stanczyk 

 

11/24/15 Late november backcountry fishing report

Well holiday time is upon us and things are starting to get busier.  We've had a few large groups down fishing so plenty of guides have been getting out again on a more regular basis.  Fishing has been on the tougher side however.  Sunday night we finally got our first taste of cool weather though it didn't get real cold only down to 70 or so.  Though this helped bring the water temperatures down in to the mid 70s which is much better for our fishing this time of year.  It had been still in the 80s which is very hot.  Anyways before the cold there wasn't a whole lot of consistency with anything.  We were trying to start doing our typical fall/winter things though one day fishing would be fair, the next you couldn't get a bite.  Mackerels have been on and off some days being good, others not.  The water in the backcountry had not been very nice looking with the high winds plus a little bit of an alagae bloom from the hot summer turing the water nasty green in some areas.  Since sunday however things have been picking up yesterday Capt. Bill Bassett reported some good action on the patches out front they caught some nice lane snappers, a handful of porgies and other things, and a nice permit.  Today he had simlar fishing losing a permit though catching the nice lanes again, plus he reported 3 bonefish too!  Capt. Jeff Beeler also caught a permit out there.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk had good action today with mackerels in the morning, porgy, jacks, and snappers mid day, and finished up the day with a good tarpon bite landing his young angler Kyle his first tarpon.  Capt. Mike Bassett reported a good snook bite today landing double digit snook, plus some big jacks and snappers.  Capt. Mike Venezia reported a handful of drum in the backcountry with some sheepshead starting to show up.  He also got into the mackerels good a few days ago locally in Islamorada!  Anyways fishing should get better and better, another good cold front and I imagine that will help even more.  Have a Happy Thanksgiving we are going out of town again, hope everyone gets to catch a few on their time off!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

11/14/15 November Deep Sea Fishing Report

What a November we have had here fishing in Islamorada! It's been a mixed bag the past ten days, and sure a couple days were a little slower than others, but we saw some incredible catches! A week ago the mahi bite was very good, the Relentless had a rack full of fish one day including a couple bulls over 30 lbs. A lot of boats had 15 - 20 fish from 4 - 15 lbs.

It has slowed down the past few days, and I think we will see some fish here and there, but as we get into winter they will be hit and miss for sure. The sailfish bite was strong a couple days, one day alone the Cloud Nine released 5. Most of the other days there's been a few release flags flying amongst the fleet. I think we will see more consistency with the sailfish once we get some colder weather. A good cold front should really spark the bite and make it more wide spread. On the reef a lot of boats have caught king mackerel, yellowtail snapper, a few grouper, and there's been a couple wahoo around. 

Way offshore daytime swordfishing has been decent as well. I fished 6 trips the past 10 days and caught fish on 5 of them. Three trips produced one fish, one trip produced 3 fish, and the other trip we landed 7 broadbill swordfish! When fishing one day is completely different than the next, but if you fish enough days you'll see both the incredible ones and slow ones. The swordfish have ranged from 30 - 80 lbs. We also caught an Alfonsino, which was a suprise. 

Give the marina office a call at 305 664 2461 when you're ready to book your next fishing charter! The reef fishing is going to be going off when we get our first cold front!

Tight Lines,

Capt. Nick Stanczyk 

11/11/15 November Backcountry Fishing Report

November is sailing by and you'd think it was still summer time here in the Florida Keys.  We had some windy weather early in the month but the last couple days things got slicked out and the temperatures have yet to drop dramatically.  Water temps are back up in the mid 80s and it definietly has a summer time feel still.  The backcountry is in that transitional period so fishing is great some days and tough others.  The other day we tarpon fished and saw more tarpon than I've seen in a while however they were just not interested in eating anything.  We fished live and dead mullet, large ones and fingers which are plentiful back there right now.  But no luck though we did catch some sharks and a 'mud marlin'.  Though Perry Scuderi the other day did catch this juvenile tarpon fishing around the islands.  Today we caught some snappers around the bay islands however it wasn't easy and it looks like we are getting some nasty water from a possible algae bloom.  Out further to the west the mackerel fishing was reportedly very good today with a mix of ladyfish, jacks, and snappers out there too.  Capt. Bill Bassett, Capt. Mike Bassett, Capt. Mike Venezia, Capt. John Johansen, Capt. Jim Willcox, and several others all had a big corporate group trip and reported good things out there.  This fishing should get better and better as it cools off.  Snook and redfish have been in the backcountry and around the cape sable area - that too has been fair some days very good, some days not.  With the calm weather the water should clean up and hopefully improve some of the shorelines areas, however that too should get better as things cool off.  There really is shots at just about anything right now until the weather changes significantly.  Looks like next week is suppose to blow again though and cool down a little though not a whole lot.  We will see what it brings!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk