3/28/15 Late March Backcountry Fishing Report

Well the calm winds and stellar conditions couldn't last forever.  We had a cold front come in last night and tonight it is suppose to get down in the low 60s.  Yesterday the wind blew hard southwest, today it was 20-25 out of the north for most the morning.  Fishing yesterday was still very good.  Capt. Skip Nielsen, Capt. Jeff Beeler, and Capt. Rick Stanczyk all had great live bait tarpon fishing yesterday at the bridges.  They all reported multiple fish landed and constant action with the live mullets getting blown up by tarpon of all sizes.  Capt. Bill Bassett had a good day in the backcountry yesterday too landing multiple fish, today however he said it slowed down a bit back there with the hard north wind and slight temperature drop.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished around town today and they had good action on the patches with porgy and a few nice hogfish, plus some giant bar jacks that were in the 10 lb range, plus a nice tarpon and couple sharks to finish.  Capt. Jeff Beeler had several tarpon bites and landed a nice 150 lb fish close to home plus several sharks today.  A few days ago Capt. Jim Willcox had a banner day in the gulf landing double digit permit, plus cobia, tripletail, goliath grouper, and more.  Capt. Rick had a nice 20 lb permit caught on a live crab off a wreck too.  Capt. John Johansen had good tarpon and shark fishing in the backcountry for a few days and good live bait fishing for tarpon in Islamorada.  Capt. Perry Scuderi had a day and night trip a few days ago, landing a nice tarpon on each trip.  Capt. Mike Venezia has had solid tarpon action fishing the local channels as well.  Capt. Mike Bassett said they had good action at the bridges a few days ago with tarpon as well.  This cold may slow them down for a few days, however hopefully the water temperature won't drop too much as to push them out.  As we enter April that is usually prime time for live mullet fishing for tarpon.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

3/22/15 March Islamorada Deep Sea Fishing Report

It's been one of the nicest weeks of weather we have seen here in a long time! Especially for the spring time, which is usually fairly windy month. It has litterally been almost slick calm the last 6 days, with variable winds. There's been some great fish caught the past week fishing in Islamorada at Bud n' Mary's Marina. I'm gonna start with a couple I caught, not only cause I write the fishing reports, but because they were two of the most memorable fish I've ever caught here. A few days back I had Jim and his family out for a daytime swordfish charter. This isn't my favorite time of year by any means for broadbill swordfish, but it's fishing and you always have a chance with a bait in the water. The morning was slow without any bites, but we finally got a bite and hooked up around lunch time. I had no idea what we hooked, until it swam up to the boat. It was a big swordfish, a giant swordfish. Jim wanted to release a swordfish if we caught one, but I could see blood so I knew the fish was hooked deep. I grabbed a couple gaffs and we stuck the fish. It was a short fight of 30 minutes for such a big fish, and the giant weighed in at 468.5 lbs! When you go big game fishing you never know when you will catch that fish of a lifetime! One bite separates the good days from the bad days.

On St. Patrick's Day I had 12 year old Ben out for a fishing trip with his family. It was a birthday fishing trip, and he got a birthday gift! His brother caught and released about a 200 lb bull shark first. But then it was Ben's turn to try for shark. I said a few JAWS quotes, and we waited for a bite. Moments later the reel started screaming and a 400 lb mako shark came up jumping! We don't catch a lot of mako's here, maybe 1 or 2 a year between the fleet, so we are excited when we get them. After 20 minutes Ben had the beast boatside. We took a few good pictures and decided to release the shark to fight another day.

There's still been some big amberjacks around the humps and wrecks too. The Stritcly Business weighed in one of the biggest of all time at the marina with a massive 121.7 lber recently. There's been quite a few others in the 40 - 70 range as well. They are one of the hardest fighting fish around, so if you want a workout you should do battle with one!

There's been a few really good catches of mahi lately too. I'm not going to say it's time to go offshore looking for mahi every day, because about 1/2 the boats do well, averaging 10 - 20 fish, but some boats aren't finding them. It's still a gamble for sure. There's been quite a few nice schoolie size fish in the 3 - 6 lb range, a few medium fish up to 12 lbs, and today there was some fish over 20 lbs hanging up.

Nice 20 lb cow mahi on the Fearless

There's also been an unusual amount of wahoo around. Usually they are more of a "bonus" fish, with the occasional one here and there. Lately though we have had multiple boats each day catching them, with fish from 10 - 30 lbs on average, and the Catch 22 had one real big one at 49 lbs a few days back. I'm not sure how long they will stick around for, but with the calm weather expected a few more days I think we'll see some more. The boats that have been able to catch live bait have been doing well on the kingfish too. A few boats have been limiting out, and many boats are catching a handful on the edge of the reef.

There hasn't been many cobia the last couple days caught, a few days ago there was some nice fish following the stingrays inside the reef. You just really have to be patient and put your time in looking. Sometimes you get lucky and find a school of fish within minutes, and other days you ride around looking for hours with no luck. Some fish have been undersize, but there has been some nice fish in the 25 - 40 lb range mixed in.

The yellowtail snapper bite has been fair lately. The water has been pretty clear, which makes it a little tougher. If you work hard at it though, you can definitely catch a bucket full of yellowtail. Further offshore there's also been some football size blackfin tuna. Give the office a call at 305 664 2461 to book your next fishing trip!

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

3/21/15 Late March Backcountry Fishing Report

The winds had laid down nicely the last several days and it look to continue to be more of the same coming up at least for the next few days.  This has been a welcome change after the almost 3 weeks of 20 mph winds we had sustained since early March.  The tarpon have shown up in big numbers all throughout the everglades, florida bay, and in downtown Islamorada as well.  They've been being caught in good numbers too both on fly, artificial, and bait.  Some days have been better than others, and conditions in all the areas haven't always been great.  There's been big masses of the lions mange 'red weed' out on the edge of the gulf making some of the backcountry fish challenging to fish for.  Also with it being slick calm that can make it difficult drifting live bait etc...  Though with the numbers of fish it's overall been good.  Capt. Skip Nielsen reported good fishing on both bait and aritficial recently.  They had landed several fish and put more in the air on artificials one day fishing out in the gulf when it was flat calm.  He also had a nice day with permit, cobia, goliath groupers, and big sharks.  All caught on FOX sportfishing tackle.  Capt. Jeff Beeler also reported good fishing with artificials for tarpon off cape sable.  Capt. Jim Willcox had a good day in the gulf with king mackerel, cobia, and goliaths yesterday.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk has had tarpon action every day.  He had a large bull shark eat a smaller baby blacktip one day that made for an interesting catch, plus he'd been getting nice triple tail just about every day in the gulf running the crab pot lines.  They fished close to home and landed a couple fishing live baits this morning on a half day.  Capt. Bill Bassett had some good fishing in the backcountry he was able to catch nice pilchards and that worked well fishing through some of the mangy 'red weed' in the backcountry channels.  Capt. Mike Venezia had good tarpon fishing and a big 'mud marlin' as well.  Capt. John Johansen has had steady tarpon and shark action.  Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti had a nice permit yesterday.  Capt. Lonny Shaw had a couple of tarpon a few days ago, plus a nice mud marlin this morning on a half day trip.  Capt. Dave Sisung had a few nice tarpon yesterday on a half day fishing the local bridges as well.  Capt. Mike Bassett had a nice tarpon yesterday plus some tripletail too.  As you can tell it's tarpon season but there has been a little bit of everything going on.  With the calm winds it's warmed up nicely and there are fish all over plus plenty of bait around.  More challenging fish can be tough with the slicked out conditions as they are more aware of boats and fisherman, but it makes for great condtions throwing the fly, sight fishing, etc...  It's been very busy though guides are starting to take night trips for tarpon.  If your intersted in going let bud n marys know they can get you out on the water chasing the silver king.  Conditions should stay pretty good this coming week.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

 

3/15/15 Offshore Fishing Report for Mid March

The past week was a windy one here in Islamorada. However, the wind dropped down tremendously today and this coming week looks like gorgeous weather. The offshore fishing boats at the marina look like they'll be extremely busy this next week, as it's spring break and there's a lot of families in town. Quite a few boats ventured offshore in search of mahi the past week. Some of the boats did well, but a few days it was quite for them. It's definitely still early in the season to be counting on them every day, but some boats have had a couple of fish each trip, and a few days boats had as many as 20 or 30 mahi. Most have been "schoolies" in the 3 - 5 lb range, but there has been a few nice "slammers" over 20 lbs lately too.

3 nice mahi aboard the Bn'M II with Capt. Nick Stanczyk

Catch 22 with a pair of slammer mahi, some schoolies, and a few blackfin tuna

The Reel McCoy with a rack full of mahi, and a few deep drop fish including a snowy grouper and tilefish

Some boats have been fortunate to find floating debris, and in addition to the mahi around it there has been some wahoo under some of the debris as well. The wahoo on the debris have been from 5 - 20 lbs. On the humps the "football" size blackfin tuna have been showing up, as well as some back breaking amberjacks! The sharks are on the humps now too, and they are feasting on the spawning amberjacks. The deep dropping in 500' for tilefish and deep water grouper has been productive lately too.

monster 73.7 lb amerjack on the Redfish

Double header Ambjerack on the Bn'M II

The safest bet for action has still been fishing around the reef. There's been a great bite of yellowtail snapper (although it might get tougher when the water clears up with the calm wind conditions this coming week), a few mutton snapper, some mangrove snapper, cero mackerel, and some king mackerel.

big "smoker" king mackerel caught while fishing the patch reefs

The sailfish really thinned out the last 10 days, but there's been 1 fish released between the fleet each of the last 3 days. I'm sure at some poing this spring we'll have another bite of sails for a couple days, but I don't know when! I think the reef wil remain the best bet for consistent action, but if you don't mind taking a gamble for early season mahi and tuna that's an option. I know it's slammed busy here the next couple weeks, but give us a call in the office at 800 742 7945 and we'll try to get you out there to catch some fish of your own!

Tight Lines,

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

3/13/15 Mid March Backcountry Fishing Report

March is near half over and it is a traditional spring time here.  Very windy weather this last week though fairly warm with little patches of rain but nothing serious.  The wind has howled just about every day we had a couple calmer days but most its been blowing 20 or more.  Fishing had been pretty good though as of late things have gotten a little tougher.  Tarpon are around though the bite has not been red hot most trips you have to put a good amount of time in for a bite or two.  Mullet have been starting to show up more and more we've had the big giant balls of mullet show up a few days.  I think once the wind lays down we should start seeing bigger schools of tarpon move into the channels and such.  Sharks have been fairly active a lot of blacktips, some big lemons, and variety of others.  Capt. Perry Scuderi had a good day with customers the other day they landed a big mud marlin and a nice cobia off of it.  Those customers fished the Gimmy Jimmy and caught quite a few wahoos and mahi today too.  Today Capt. Perry caught 1 out of 2 tarpon close to home.  They also had plenty of trout, ladyfish, and snappers on the light rods.  Capt. Mike Bassett reported a mud marlin as well yesterday.  Today Capt. Gunner caught a couple tarpon on a full day plus some snappers for dinner.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk reported some sharks, snappers, and 1 out of 2 tarpon yesterday.  Today they had one tarpon eat a live bait but they missed it, and a few other cheap shots, and landed some sharks.  Capt. Skip Nielsen had 77 year old Dick Alt land a monster tarpon in the backcountry a few days ago.  They landed it on FOX sportfishing tackle.  Capt. Jim Willcox reported some good redfish fishing way back in the everglades a few days ago as well.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk