6/22/15 Islamorada Backcountry Fishing Report

The weather has been very nice and fishing has been good overall in the backcountry of Islamorada.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk has reported very good summe time tarpon fishing in the everglades backcountry.  Lots of smaller fish mostly 'the residents' in the 30 to 60 lb range.  It's been very good most days we just had a bit of a lull though the last couple days they have started to show back up and are biting well.  The morning and evening trips around town are slowing down for tarpon there can still be some good fishing though some of the big groups of migrating fish seem to have moved on.  Capt. Gunner Guthrie had a joint trip with Capt. Rick yesterday and they got a nice tarpon plus several hammerhead and blacktip sharks.  Capt. Rick Stancyzk has had several good days snook fishing too they landed half a dozen today.  Capt. Rick had Barry and Sarah Cross they landed multiple backcountry SLAMS (snook, redfish, tarpon) and had a wonderful day fishing.  He also reported a beast 150 lb tarpon yesterday that dragged them 4 miles and they landed after 2.5 hours!  Capt. Mark Hlis last week had a nice 15 lb permit and 13 lb redfish sightfishing on a half day.  11 year old jack caught the permit, and Mitch caught the redish tailing in 6" of water.  Jo landed several nice bonefish including an 11 lber with Capt. Richard Stanczyk Sr.  Capt. Skip Nielsen has reported some good action with tarpon in the backcountry and some snook as well.  Capt. Skip also reported some good days bonefishing he had Dr. Mark Harris from Isle of Man with his first ever bonefish.   Tom and Wendy Sims had snook, tarpon, and snapper with Skip, and Dave, John, and Kate had bonefish, pompano, snapper, and some sharks.  Fishing should continue to stay good through the summer.  With consistent weather conditions the fish should stay happy and this can offer anglers great opportunities!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

6/17/15 Mid June Offshore Fishing Report

June is flying by here while offshore fishing in Islamorada! We are already past the mid way point and we've had lots of fish stories made here the past week at Bud n' Mary's. The wind finally let up a little the last few days so the ocean is calming down, but it was definitely windy and a little rough here at the end of last week and over the weekend. Unfortunately we had a few slow days on the mahi, where a lot of boats really struggled finding fish, or keeper size fish I should say. Lots of boats were finding big schools of mahi, but the problem was many of the fish didn't make the 20'' minimum size limit. A lot of boats just had a few mahi they could keep, although a couple boats still did good and had 15 - 20 fish. There was a couple "slammers" on the dock each day from 20 - 30 lbs, and a few gaffers from 10 - 15 lbs.

The good news is the fishing really picked up the last couple days here! Yesterday we saw quite a few "gaffers" hanging up and a lot of boats each had a couple "slammers", incluidng some real nice bulls. The blackfin tuna bite has been very steady the past week here around the humps. Pretty much all "footballs", but still great eating and great fighters on light tackle. When trolling you never know what you'll catch and we saw a couple wahoos here the past week, and the Gon Fishin V caught and released a 150 lb blue marlin yesterday!

There's been a few tripletail hanging around the floating debris as well. Back on the reef the yellowtail snapper bite has been very good the last few days. Almost all the boats that anchored down limited out on snapper. Some of the boats are getting in on the mangrove snapper spawn too. I saw a few big mangs that were 20" - 22" on the fillet tables. We should see more mangrove snapper each week here the next couple months. There's still a couple black grouper around the reef and wrecks, as well as a few real nice mutton snapper. We had some nice mutton snapper from 10 - 14 lbs hanging up on the racks for the boats that did reef trips. The Miss Islamorada Party boat has been doing great on their trips with tons of snapper, and they even had a nice 30 lb cobia that swam up into their chum slick. You really just never know what you'll catch off Islamorada.

Way offshore I've done a few daytime swordfishing trips, with each trip producing one fish. We tagged and released two juvenile broadbill , and we kept one for dinner that was 110 lbs. If you want to take a gamble and try your luck for a swordfish we are getting into the season where the weather and fishing is usually consistent. It's call big game fishing for a reason though, and you're not going to get one every day.

 

The summer is a great time to fish here in Islamorada for a lot of species, so give the office a call at 1 800 742 7945 and set up a fishing trip.

Tight Lines,

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

6/11/15 June Backcountry Fishing Report Florida Keys

June is rolling on and we've started to settle into some of our summer time patterns here in Islamorada.  Weather has been nice the last week, we've had some scattered showers and light variable winds - normal for this time of year.  Fishing has been pretty good overall though a little up and down.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished Luke Knox for his 16th birthday trip down with his mom and dad from Tennessee last weekend.  They fished a morning half day and a full day and had stellar fishing.  Luke landed multiple tarpon, a 'mud marlin', several sharks, trout, snapper, and quite a few snook.  Really a couple of those 'dream days' where you can't make a wrong move and everything works out exactly as planned.  Everyone had a blast!  Of course right after that the winds shifted to flat calm and more south westerly and Capt. Rick reported a little tougher but still productive fishing, still having shots at tarpon each day and a variety of sharks, and some other odds and ends though the fish were definitely not as cooperative.  Today things were much better and winds were again more northeasterly.  He had local anglers from Miami down and they landed multiple tarpon.  Capt. John Johansen has reported consistent tarpon and shark action in the everglades around flamingo and cape sable.  He also fished on the patches the other day and said it was slow though they picked away and got a few nice hogfish and porgy for dinner.  Capt. Perry Scuderi had a young anglers he has fished for years out yesterday, he landed a jump hammerhead shark as well as a 150 lb tarpon.  Capt. Bill Bassett has reported some tarpon and sharks in the backcountry as well.  Capt. Mike Venezia reported some good action fishing around the islands in the backcountry with nice mangrove snapper and some snook.  They also landed some golaith groupers out in the gulf one day.  Capt. Mike Bassett reported some nice large size summer time trout out in the gulf mixed in with snapper and ladyfish, plus some sharks in the channels.  Capt. Jim Willcox reported good action fishing out in the near gulf and back in the everglades with some big sharks and some tarpon around back there as well.  Looks to be a little wind the next few days through the weekend, nothing crazy but a steady breeze.  It hopefully will stay out of the east which is a much more favorable wind for fishing and we will likely have some passing showers here and there.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
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6/10/15 June Deep Sea Fishing in Islamorada

We've had some gorgeous weather here the last few days while deep sea fishing in Islamorada. Winds have been 5 - 10 knots, with calm seas. We had a few passing showers, but overall really nice. The majority of the charter boats have been on the hunt for mahi (dolphin fish). These have been full day charters for the most part, and overall the fishing has been pretty good. A few days have been tougher (like today for some of the boats), but that's why its called fishing! Most of the boats have been average 10 - 25 fish, although some boats haven't found them on a few days. Fishing for mahi can be hours of boredom trolling around looking for working birds, floating debris, and just fish swimming, and then all of a sudden if you hit the right school you might fill your cooler in one stop! The fish have been from 3 - 15 lbs for the most part, with a few nice slammers in the 25 - 38 lb range. A lot of boats have got in on the tuna action on the hump, mostly blackfins in the 3 - 7 lb range, although I did see a 20 lber hanging up yesterday. On the bottom there's been some big amberjacks up to 50 lbs, on both bait and vertical jigs. On the troll we've seen a couple wahoo still and a few billfish. Yesterday the Reel McCoy released an estimated 250 lb blue marlin, a few days prior the Cloud Nine released a big 80 lb white marlin, and today the Catch 22 released a sailfish. You never know what will bite when you're trolling offshore Islamorada. A couple boats did some deep dropping the past week and we saw some nice snowy grouper (which you're allowed one per boat), and a couple suprise Golden Tilefish. Unfortunately Blueline tilefish closed today for about the next year, but hopefully we can get the fisheries to come to their senses and make an adjustment before that. Back on the reef the yellowtail snapper bite has been decent when the current and wind have been the same direction, and there's still some mangrove and mutton snappers. I fished four swordfish trips the past week here and we got fish on three of them. The Catch 22 fished one trip as well but reported no bites. One of my trips produced 2 fish and the other trips produced 1. About a week ago though we got another monster swordfish that weighed 434.5 lbs! It was our only bite that day, as we were winding it up to call it quits, and the big fish struck. If swordfishing is on your bucket list the next few months should give you a good shot.

Tight Lines,

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

6/6/16 June Backcountry Fishing Report in Islamorada

June is here and we are getting into the summer time mode here in Islamorada.  The last week or so we've had very calm wind which has been nice and led to some good conditions for many things.  We had a little bit of rain on and off for a couple days though we were able to get out and fish for the most part without getting too wet.  This is the time of year when passing tropical showers are always a possibility, but in Florida it can be raining one minute and bright and sunny the next - which is often the case!  The nice thing too is with smart phones today you can often see the radar even out on the boat and avoid incoming weather.  As for fishing things have been pretty good overall.  Tarpon are still high on the list and the fishing for them has still been pretty good.  On the evenings especially with falling tides they are feeding on live crabs pretty well.  Fresh mullet have been very tough to come by though most guides are able to find a few here and there, or buy live ones occasionally.  They've still been feeding on mullet when you offer it to them.  In the backcountry there are lots of summer time size tarpon showing up, the 30 to 60 lbers we enjoy this time of year.  If you get into a pack of them it can be crazy action for a period of time.  Mixed in the channels are plenty of blacktip sharks with the occsional lemon, bull, or hammerhead.  There have been a few snook around and if you are able to catch some live pinfish or pilchards you can be in good shape to try your hand at catching them.  As we get later in the summer we should see more snook showing up and Fall that fishing gets really good.  There have been lots of bonefish around too.  Capt. Jim Willcox had several good days of 'stake up' bonefishing recently with the overcast weather.  Capt. Jeff Beeler had a couple bonefish the other day as well as a couple of nice tarpon in the backcountry.  He also reported plenty of good action with trout, snappers, and ladyfish in the bay.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk has reported good tarpon fishing locally around town in the mnornings, as well as deep in the everglades.  Capt. Bill Bassett had a nice tarpon on a crab the other day, and lost a good size permit unfortunately.  He also reported a handful of hogfish and porgy out on the patch reefs - late in the year but cool to see that fishing is still productive!  Capt. Mike Venezia had a nice snook and couple tarpon the other day.  Capt. Mike Bassett reported some good snook and tarpon action around east cape, they were pitching live baits in the canals and caught a couple snook and baby tarpon, and lost a few more but good fun action.  Capt. John Johansen has reported good shark and tarpon action around the Flamingo area.  I have not heard many reports from out in the gulf but this is the time of year when permit fishing can be very good out there, plus there are plenty of big things like goliath groupers, bull sharks, and cobia to pull on as well.  This week the weather looks to stay nice and calm with a slight chance of showers, typical summer time weather.  Fishing should stay hot!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk