8/10/15 Early August Offshore fishing report

The crowds are finally thinning out here a little at Bud n' Mary's. It's a nice change of pace, especially for fishing since the waters won't be nearly as crowded the next few months. The winds have been very calm the last few days while offshore fishing in Islamorada. Over the past 10 days mahi have still been the main target for the boats. Most of the days were pretty active, but there was a couple slower days lately with the extremely nice weather. A lot of times a little bit of wind helps "the bite". Overall the boats on full day charters have been averaging 10 - 30 fish, the majority of the fish are schoolies in the 3 - 5 lb range, a handful of medium size fish from 7 - 12 lbs, and there's been some slammers on the dock each day from 20 - 30 lbs. The last couple days in particular we have had lots of big schools of fish, with keeper  "schoolies" and undersize "shakers" mixed together. The "shakers" are undersize mahi which we shake off next to the boat. Sometimes you have to catch 30 or 40 fish just to keep a handful of legal fish. I think the boats will still keep catching mahi in good numbers the rest of the month, but you may just have to be patient go through a lot of fish to put some meat in the box. The blackfin tuna have been showing up in better numbers on the humps, with fish from 3 - 20 lbs. The fall months have been very good for blackfin tunas the last couple years, so I imagine we'll see plenty of tuna here the next couple months.

A few boats have been fishing the reef, but remember it's extremely hot out and with little wind it's hard to spend much more than a 1/2 day on the anchor fishing the reef comfortably. The mangrove snapper bite has been very good and there's still some yellowtails in the mix.

Way offshore I've been doing some daytime swordfishing lately. We had some bad luck losing fish on few trips, and one trip without a bite, but the good news is the last 3 trips we caught fish, including a monsterous 335 lber and one trip produced 4 fish! We tagged and released 3 of them. The fall is a great time to target swordfish and we have a handful of boats here all rigged and ready. If you want to take a gamble and try to catch a fish you'll always remember, consider swordfishing this time of year. Give the marina office a call to set up any fishing trip you want to do at 305 664 2461!

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

8/5/15 August Backcountry Fishing Report

I'm back from vacation was away for a week and hadn't been able to do a fishing report in a while.  Anyways we got out today and fishing was very good for us.  Lots of mullet around in the backcountry especially on the way home in the afternoon.  We were able to get some in the morning early for some tarpon fishing.  Found a good pack of tarpon and my anglers Dylan and Dawson were both able to land their first tarpon among a couple others.  I felt lucky as I've heard the tarpon action hasn't been great since I've been gone, just a handful of fish with a couple shots a day if you are lucky.  We also had some decent shark action including a nice little hammerhead.  After that we caught a bunch of snappers and then tried to get the boys their first snook.  We found some tiny finger mullets in the creek mouths and caught those, and the boys were lucky enough to each get a snook to finish up the day. Otherwise lately Capt. John Johansen has reported a few tarpon as of late and some sharks mixed in.  Capt. Jim Willcox had some tarpon action in the last week, he got a nice one today plus a goliath grouper.  Last week he had a few nice big snook off the beaches of cape sable.  Capt. Mike Bassett reported a few snook in some creeks up to the east last week with some trout, snappers, and jacks mixed in.  He also got a nice tripletail the other day while fishing off the beach.  Capt. Perry Scuderi also reported some tripletail out in the gulf the other day as well, plus some big lemon sharks.  Capt. Vic Gaspeny has had some tarpon action and a few mud marlins in the evenings tarpon fishing around town too.  Fishing in August can still be very good in the backcountry if you can stand the heat.  Tarpon are definitely still a good possibility, this is the last month where we consistently still find them so if you are looking to catch a silver king that is still a viable option!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

7/30/15 Deep Sea fishing report for end of July 2015

It's still busy here deep sea fishing in Islamorada for July. The majority of the boats have been fishing offshore most days, and a couple boats have been staying on the reef on their half day charters. The mahi bite was a little on and off the past week, but the last few days we saw a handful of great catches. Most of the boats have had 10 - 25 fish on their full day charters, but a few boats struggles some days and only had a couple mahi. We've had some very calm weather the last few days and I think once the wind goes back around and starts blowing from the east we'll see some more big numbers of them. There's been fish of all sizes, but mostly 3 - 15 lbs. I did see a few "slammers" on the dock each day between 20 and 35 lbs as well. There's been a few blackfin tuna on the humps as well as skipjacks. On the floating debris and weed patches there's been a handful of tripletail as well as a couple wahoo.

Back on the reef the boats have been doing decent with mangrove snapper and the yellowtail snapper bite has been mediocre. There's been some big bull sharks from 200 - 300 lbs on the reef, so if you want to catch something big that pulls back, there's something you should consider fishing for. I made it out on a few daytime swordfishing trips the past week. We had John from Texas out on the Catch 22 one day and he landed a monster sword! Weighing in at 451.5 lbs! The next day Robert landed a 300 lb big eye thresher shark that we released. The following trip we lost a couple swordfish near the boat, but that's why it's called fishing.

August is still a greath month to try for mahi and blackfin tuna here, so give us a call at 305 664 2461 and let us set you up on a great boat at the marina! There should be some big sharks on the humps this fall too.

Tight Lines,

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

7/19/15 Mid July Offshore Fishing Report Islamorada

July is moving right along and we are past the half way mark fishing in Islamorada in July 2015! The weather turned really nice the last few days with calm winds, but unfortunately we've seen some tough fishing! Since the middle of last week the mahi bite slowed down, but I think it will pick back up as soon as we get a little more wind. Today was better than the last few days, but it wasn't easy by any means. Today the boats averaged 8 - 18 fish. Most of the fish have been from 3 - 15 lbs, with a few slammers amongst the fleet in the 20 - 35 lb range. Late this afternoon the Reel McCoy was running home and they found a big bull and put a 42 lber on the dock! So you just never know when you're gonna get that Slammer! Some boats did decent last week with 10 - 15 fish, but many boats had anywhere from 2 - 5 fish. On the hump there's been quite a few skipjack tuna with a few blackfin tuna mixed in. A few boats have deep dropped (deep water bottom fished) and caught some barrelfish and blackbelly rosefish. Back on the reef there's been yellowtail snapper, mangrove snapper, and mutton snapper. The Hey Papa found a some permit one day and released a couple. I swordfished a couple trips the last week and we tagged and released one juvenile broadbill swordfish yesterday, and the trip before that was slow with no bites. I think the mahi and tuna will turn back on soon, and either way our boats will give it 100% each day! Give us a call in the marina office at 1 800 742 7945 to try your luck fishing! The Miss Islamorada Party boat has been doing very well lately, and they've had over 200 yellowtail on multple trips this week!

Tight Lines,

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

7/16/15 Mid July Backcountry Fishing Report for Islamorada

Summer time continues to be in full swing.  We've had nice weather with light southwesterly winds, a few days it was blowing a little more, though not bad at all.  Traditional summe time conditions with some scattered showers on and off.  Fishing has been good overall there are still some decent numbers of tarpon around especially in the everglades.  Fishing locally for them around Islamorada has still been OK too if you time it right, that usually means early in the morning or later in the evening.  Snook fishing in the 'glades has been good too and some big lunkers have been showing up off the mainland beaches and shorelines.  Capt. Bill Bassett has reported some tarpon action as well as sharks mixed in.  He also caught a large 'mud marlin' today.  Capt. Jim Willcox has been having some success with snook off the beaches, they also had some nice size trout and some blacktip sharks today.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk has reported consistent tarpon action every day with a variety of sharks mixed in including some juvenile hammerheads.  His anglers also landed nice cobia two days in a row, and a couple large 15 lb snooks the other day.  Capt. John Johansen has also reported consistent tarpon action with sharks mixed in.  Capt. Perry Scuderi caught a monster 24 lb snook a few days ago, one of the largest we've seen caught down here.  He also tangled with a big 'mud marlin' in the backcountry that day.  Capt. Jeff Beeler reported good fishing for juvenile tarpon yesterday on artificials.  Snapper action has been good too Capt. Gunner Guthrie and Capt. Sid Bryant reported some nice snappers today for the dinner box.  The forecast looks to stay nice through the weekend with the wind swinging slightly more east which should be a good thing.  Come on down and let's get out fishing, give us a call to set up your trip now at 1-800-742-7945!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk