7/11/15 Islamorada Deep Sea Fishing Report

It has been Mahi Madness the past week here fishing in Islamorada! It has been very consistent fishing for almost all the boats every day! The offshore boats have been averaging from 20 - 40 fish, and all different sizes. There's been some small "shakers" that we have been letting go, but most of the fish are big "schoolies'' and "gaffers". They have been averaging 5 - 15 lbs, and we've seen a few nice "slammers" on the dock each day as well. Capt. Joey on the Fearless charter boat weighed a true Monster bull in this week, tipping the scales at 56.5 lbs! That's the biggest one on the dock so far this year at Bud n' Mary's, and his personal best, so CONGRATS to you and your angler! Great Job! We've seen some "slammer" mahi from 25 - 40 lbs each day spread out amongst the fleet. There's been a few blackfins and skipjacks around the humps, as well as a couple sharks and amberjacks. The reef bite has been very good for yellowtail snapper, with the Miss Islamorada limiting out on a few of there charters. The mangrove snappers are biting good if you can find them, and there's still a couple mutton snappers around. Out further I've been doing quite a bit of swordfishing. The bite has been pretty steady, averaging from 1 - 3 bites per trip. You just have to make them (or one of them) count in order to have a successful day. We've caught between one and two on most of our trips lately, although One trip we lost 2 and another trip the Catch 22 lost two as well. We've tagged and released a handful of the fish, and kept some for dinner , the biggest being to 140 lbs. We have been using GrayFishTag research tags on some of the releases, so hopefully someone else will catch them one day and we can see how much they grew and where they wound up going.  Give us a call in the office to get in on the mahi action at 305 664 2461 and we'll set you up with a great boat.

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

 

7/9/15 July Backcountry Fishing Report in Islamorada

We are in July boy how time flies.  I was out of town but fished the last couple days.  Yesterday the winds cranked up again and today it did the same, blowing a good 20 mph.  At least it is keeping the heat down!  Yesterday my anglers wanted goliath groupers and we did that out in the gulf, catching 4 goliaths between 40 and 100 lbs!  The day before tarpon fishing in the everglades was good we caught multiple tarpon.  Today a little slower for us but we got my single angler one and he was very happy with a trophy fish, we fished a 3/4 day!  Capt. Bill Bassett reported a little better fishing right after we left he ended up catching multiple tarpon fishing his his boys.  Capt. Chris Daly reported a big snook for his young angler of 20 lbs or better.  Capt. Jim Willcox reported several medium size snook fishing artificials back around cape sable.  There has been a few tripletail around free floating off the beaches while tarpon fishing, Capt. John Johansen had some nice tripletails last week for the dinner box.  He has reported steady shark and tarpon action as well.  Capt. Jeff Beeler had some sharks and tarpon yesterday too as well as Capt. Mike Venezia with some tarpon last week.  The winds look to be settling down by the weekend (hopefully).  There are still plenty of tarpon around though often it is requiring a longer run into the everglades so sometimes tough to do on the half days.  Though plenty of other stuff to catch too!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

7/2/15 Offshore fishing report for Islamorada

A lot of Offshore boats fished the last week of June and the first couple days of July here in Islamorada. We had some great dolphin (mahi) fishing about a week ago, but it did get a little tougher the last few days. The weather was calm the last few days in June, which is partially why the dolphin fishing slowed down a little. It should pick back up after the full moon here in July,  and the steady wind we have this week should help too. Most the boats still did decent on their charters, but there were a few days where some of the boats caught lots of mahi, but unfortunately they were all undersize. The boats have been finding multiple schools of fish, but finding the right size ones has been the ticket. Overall the boats have been average 10 - 25 legal fish. We've seen a couple slammers on the dock every day as well, including some big "Bullheads" over 40 lbs. Some days you might catch schoolie dolphin most the day, and then all of a sudden a big pair of slamers suprises you and you catch that dolphin of a life time!

The blackfin tuna bite has been on and off at the humps, but the last couple days the bite seems to be getting more steady. Back on the reef the yellowtail snapper bite has been very good. The Miss Islamorada has been limiting out on yellowtail snapper on most of their trips lately too. Today they had over 300 yellowtail snapper and the day before over 200! There's been a couple mutton snappers mixed in and the mangrove snappers are biting in certain areas as well. Way offshore I've been on a handful of day time swordfish charters and we've been fortunate to land between 1 on every trip, with one trip producing 2 fish. We tagged and released a couple of the smaller fish and kept a few of the bigger fish up to 135 lbs. One day we also did some "deep drop" bottom fishing to mix things up and Capt. Scott put Derek and Andy on 2 very large golden tilefish, weighing in at 30 and 36 lbs! We don't catch many of them here, so it's always nice to catch something different.

Whether you want to go offshore chasing dolphin (mahi) , or stay on the reef for action with snapper, give the marina a call at 305 664 2461 and let them find you a great charterboat!

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

6/30/15 End of June backcountry fishing report

June is about officially over.  Boy it feels like summer time the last couple days have been as hot as it gets.  Very light southwesterly winds and water temperatures up to 92 degrees in some areas.  Luckily the fishing has still been pretty good.  Tarpon are still being found back in the everglades and a few around town.  Plenty of sharks mixed in.  Capt. John Johansen and Capt. Rick Stanczyk have both reported good tarpon action in the backcountry.  Capt. Mark Hlis has reported seeing some bonefish while sightfishing around Islamorada.  Damian White of Tampa sight fished a nice 10 lb bonefish out of a pack of 20 or so.  Capt. Skip Nielsen last week reported some good tarpon action in the backcountry.  He also had some good snook fishing with Steve Kost catching a nice one on fly, and Dave Kubert landing several on ultra light tackle.  Capt. Perry Scuderi has had a few tarpon close to home as has Capt. Mike Venzia in the last week.  Capt. Bill Bassett reported a big day a few days ago, with several mud marlin, a big cobia, sharks, and a couple tarpon.  There has been good trout and snapper action in the bays out closer to the gulf.  The deeper, cooler water seems to be providing better action this time of year drifting the grass beds and potholes.  I'll be out of town for a week or so but fishing is pretty good right now, summer time can be 'hot fishing!'

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

6/25/15 Islamorada Deep Sea Fishing Report

It's hard to believe we are already nearing the end of June fishing in Islamorada. The weather has really turned out to be pretty nice the last couple days, and the next few days look even nicer! Summer time is Mahi time and the past week we've seen some great catches and rack fulls of mahi. There's been a mixture of fish of all sizes from 2 - 40 lbs. The Islamorada Deep Sea Charter boats are finding multiple schools of fish most days, and you just have to keep going from school to school until you find the right ones. The boats have been averaging 15 - 40 fish per trip, with most of them being from 3 - 10 lbs, and a handful of bigger ones from 15 - 35 lbs. A few boats have had 1 - 3 "slammers" per trip, but a couple boats have had as many as 6 - 10! A lot of the fish have been offshore a good ways, with some boats going 30 miles, and that's why a full day is required many times! If the fish are close in you have a shot on a 1/2 day, but lately a 1/2 day fishing charter wouldn't get you where most of the mahi are.

There's still been a few "bonus" fish trolling, including a couple wahoo and 2 white marlin the past week, One on the Bn'M and one on the Catch 22. The blackfin tuna bite slowed down a little from what it was, but there's still some around so if you want some tuna for sushi or for the grill you still have a shot at getting some "footballs" around the hump.

The reef bite has been good most of the days with lots of yellowtail snapper, some mangrove snapper, a couple mutton snapper, and a few hogfish. The mangrove snapper are really going to turn on here with the full moon coming up, so keep that in mind. There's also been some barracuda around which are always fun to catch. Way offshore I've been on four swordfish trips, One trip producing 2 fish, two trips with 1 fish, and unfortunately one trip with 0 fish, although we had one close to the boat. The biggest fish was 117 lbs and the smallest was 40 lbs.

Just to put things in perspective how fishing changes over night and from day to day the picture above was when I fished with Capt. Dave on the Gimme Jimmy a couple days ago, we caught a bunch of big mahi and a swordfish. Everything worked out perfect and it was one of those days everyone onboard will remember. But things changed over night  and the next day I headed out to the same area we didn't see any big mahi and lost a couple swordfish. They call it fishing for a reason and there are no guarantees, but that's why I always say you should book two days...

Give the marina office a call at 305 664 2461 and let us find a good boat for your next fishing charter.

Tight Lines

Capt Nick Stanczyk