12/21/14 Islamorada Offshore fishing report in December

The past week has been some of the nicest weather you could ask for while offshore fishing in Islamorada in December! We've had light winds, clear skies, and lots of sunshine! A fair amount of boats have been getting out each day, with both full and half day trips to the reef. The 50th annual Islamorada Junior Sailfish tournament took place this Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday the Kalex had a great day with some kids releasing 5 sailfish, but unfortunately Sunday their luck changed and they lost the lead but it was still a great time. The reel mccoy also had some sailfish action with a young angler releasing a sailfish Saturday and the Strictly business got in on some of the action today and released 2 sails for a youngster. Great job kids!

Today the Relentless had a big day on the sails, releasing 6. The Man O War had a great catch with over a dozen mahi, a few nice blackfin tuna, and a big wahoo. The Buzz On had a great catch of yelloweye snapper while deep dropping in 400' of water.

Big wahoo on the Man O War

Great catch of deep water snapper on the Buzz On

We've seen some really nice cobia here the past week, inlcuding a 62 lber on Kalex and a 58 lber aboard the Relentless. When fishing for cobia it takes lots of patience, as the boats cruise inside the reef looking for stingrays which the schools of cobia typically follow this time of year. You usually don't have any lines in the water, some people say they don't think they are "fishing", but the truth is the crew is searching and scanning for fish the entire time! When you find a school, be ready for action! The easiest days to find them are the calm clear sunny days, as we can spot them easier, but weather conditions change every day here and you just have to adapt and "fish the conditions". The sailfish bite the last two definitely picked up from what it was overall the past week, as there was some quite days for the sails. It looks like we have another cold front coming through in a couple days so hopefully that keeps the sailfish biting for us around Christmas.

40 lb cobia for Ron on the Catch 22

Jimmy from Relentless prepares to gaff a big cobia

On the wrecks there's been king mackerel in the 5 - 15 lb range,  and the occassional wahoo mixed in. The bottom fishing on the reef has been steady, producing a few grouper and the usual yellowtail, mangrove, and mutton snapper.

Catch 22 with a mixed bag of snapper, grouper, mackerel, cobia, and a sailfish release

Great 1/2 day charter on the Redfish

Wahoo for the Gimme Jimmy!!!

Handful of king mackerel, a big mutton snapper, and the target species, a sailfish release for Man O War

Kalex with a limit of Mackerel and a few nice cobia

I made it out on a daytime swordfish charter yesterday on the Bn'M II. I had Anthony from Massachusetts out in search of his first broadbill swordfish. Things worked out perfectly as we caught one around 75 lbs on the first drop. We missed one other one after that. There's still a few swordfish around, but it is getting late in the season for them. If we have decent weather though and can make the run 40 miles, we always have a shot at a broadbill off Islamorada. 

Christmas week usually brings a lot of people around the docks, many of them booking charters, so give us a call ahead of time to get a great charter booked while you're on vacation! Bud N Mary's Marina 305 664 2461

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

12/18/14 Inshore Fishing Report December Florida Keys

It's getting close to christmas and things are picking up.  After the short lull between thanksgiving and christmas, it's getting much busier here in Islamorada.  The weather has been absolutely gorgeous - light winds and nice brisk air, with sunny skies to warm you up in the afternoon.  The fishing has been pretty great too.  We have just come off a weak tidal cycle as we had a couple days with little current/tidal flow that made fishing a little tough though still caught some good fish.  Capt. Bill Bassett, Capt. John Johansen, and Capt. Rick Stanczyk had a group trip a few days ago.  Spanish mackerel were chewing well and everyone caught their fair share.  We finished up with a mixed bag of fish on the patch reefs including hogfish, porgy, snapper, jacks, and cero mackerel.  Capt. Lonny Shaw today had some gigantic hogfish including one almost 5 lbs on the patch reefs!  Great fishing out there!  Capt. Jim Willcox just finished filming a couple days for a new TV show for 2015.  They got footage catching MONSTER black drum back at cape sable one day, and then some good action with snook and redfish yesterday.  Today Capt. Rick Stanczyk was back there they had great fishign with snook, redfish, black drum, sheepshead, and even got a 50 lb tarpon to the boat but it ran and jumped off before they could get pictures.  Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti had some redfish and snook, as well as some big jack crevelles in the backcountry around flamingo.  Capt. Mike Venezia has had some good backcountry action with similar fish, as well as some action out front on the patch reefs with porgies, hogs, and small grouper his last trip.  Capt. Chris Daly had some good fun fishing and sight fished a couple bonefish the other afternoon as well!  The weather looks to be nice through the weekend into next week.  If your down here before or during the holidays, book a trip now as after xmas it becomes a zoo down here.  Just about everything that floats will be booked!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

12/16/14 Mid December Reef Fishing Report

It's the heart of December here while fishing in Islamorada. The weather has been great the last few days and looks to be great the next few too! There's been a variety of fish being caught each day as well. The last 2 days multiple boats have found big schools of cobia following stingrays, releasing some fishing and keeping a handful in the 20 - 35 lb range. I think with this calm weather the next few days we'll see some more hanging up each day. When fishing for cobia you have to have lots of patience, it's like hunting. You can spend hours searching for fish inside the reef, where they follow big stingrays, but if you find them, it's worth the wait! They are one of the hardest fighting fish we catch! The sailfish bite slowed down the last week here, but this afternoon seemed to pick up a little. Last weekend a couple boats in the fleet released a fish or two each day, and yesterday there was one release between all the boats. But this afternoon (after a pretty slow morning) we released 2 sails and the Relentless did as well. We have strong northeast current on the reef which is usually very good for sailfish, so hopefully we'll get a body of fish in here any day and the sailfish bite will get consistent again like it was in Early December! The conditions are definitely right! There's been a couple wahoo caught the last few days here, and a fair amount of king mackerel each day. With the current into the wind and clear water the bottom fish bite has been a little difficult, but the boats have been able to scratch up enough snapper and white meat fish for dinner between the patch reefs and wrecks. We have also seen some nice amberjacks in the 30 - 45 lb range on the deeper wrecks! The Reel McCoy has been very consistent catching black grouper his last few trips as well. Yesterday the Catch 22 caught one broadbill swordfish around 60 lbs and also caught a pair of nice mahi, including a 40 lb Bull! Definitely a suprise for mid December! It looks like its going to be a busy week here next week before Christmas, and a super busy week after Christmas, so call us in the marina office to book your next deep sea fishing charter! 305 664 2461!

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

Wahoo!!!!!

Sailfish on the leader aboard Relentles. It's best for the fish to get a picture while they are in the water

Gimme Jimmy with a big wahoo, cobias, kingfish, and jacks

Sailfish release on the BnM II.

Big mutton snapper on the Relentless

The Reel McCoy with a rack full of mackerel and grouper

12/12/14 December Backcountry Fishing in the Florida Keys

Brr it's chilly here in the south Florida Keys but the fishing has been red hot with the latest cold front to push through this december in islamorada.  Yesterday the winds laid down to almost nothing just a light breeze of 5 mph out of the north in the morning, switching to the southeast in the afternoon.  We ran out into the gulf in the morning and caught the start of the falling tide.  After chumming for a bit we had the spanish mackerel biting very good and it was all the action you could handle for a solid hour and a half.  Most fish in the 3 lb range though a handful of 5 lbers.  Fishing the gulf of mexico is a good bet on calm, cool days such as this and you don't have to beat other boats to the 'hot spot' as can often be the case on busy days in the flamingo area.  After we had our fill we went to flamingo and hit a few spots I haven't been too in a while.  It was nice as we did not see any other boats in the first area I hit, and fishing was spetacular.  We had a solid snook bite for a good hour or so, plus got a handful of redfish and sheepshead.  After that we hit some of the channel run-offs on the end of the falling tide, but did not do much else... but still a spectacular day florida keys inshore fishing in december.  Capt. Skip Nielsen had Tom and Wendy Sims, long time Bud n Marys customers, out the day before.  Not quite as nice a day wind wise but it wasn't too bad fishing the nearby patch reefs.  They got some nice hogfish for the cooler, plus plenty of other fish including a variety of snappers, gorgeous trigger fish, and other patch species.  Capt. Mike Venezia had a couple days filming with Copout Adventures.  They had a good day in the backcountry a couple days ago with redfish, trout, sheepshead, and sharks.  Then yesterday hit the florida keys patch reefs for hogfish, porgies, lane snappers, and some mutton snappers.  Capt. Bill Bassett several days ago reported a backcountry slam in the afternoon they caught plenty of snook, a few redfish and sheepshead, and topped it off with a 30lb tarpon on light tackle.  Capt. Bill also had some very nice size mangrove snappers yesterday and a few juvenile groupers off of a sunken boat they found in the nearby gulf of mexico.  Capt. Jeff Beeler had some good patch fishing yesterday as well with some nice hogfish for the cooler.  My brother Nick and our friend Capt. Dave Peck who visits in the winter from NC for a few months had a good day in the east cape sable fishing.  They had solid snook action in the morning with several nice size fish.  This weekend looks to be nice weather it should start slowly warming up though the winds are suppose to stay light to moderate out of the north.  Business is picking up and the phones are ringing, christmas week is just around the corner.  If your looking to get out fishing islamorada in december, give us a call we can get you out on the water!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

12/10/14 Offshore Fishing report for Islamorada

It's definitely winter time here in Islamorada now! It's a chilly 57 degrees this morning, but the sun is out and the boats are too! Last Friday to Sunday was the 51st Islamorada Sailfish Tournament, which is a 3 day tournament and the first leg of the Florida Keys Gold Cup Sailfish Championship. It was an exciting event, but in the end Capt. Paul Ross on the Relentless led his teama to victory with 16 releases! They caught and released a quadruple header the final day to secure the top spot!

Capt. David Morris, who runs the "fishwife" at the marina, was running the Nancy Lee for the tournament and they finished with 15 releases, giving them 2nd place. We are always impressed with how well the Bud n' Mary's Team does in tournaments, so when you're ready to fish with some of the best in the business give the office a call at 800 742 7945 and we'll set you up to catch that fish of a lifetime! The sailfish bite has been steady the past week here. The boats that dedicated their entire day to sailfishing have had as many as 7 and 9 releases, with most the boats averaging 2 - 4 releases. I think the sailfish bite should remain steady for the upcoming weeks, so if a sailfish is on your bucket list, book a trip soon! Another exciting fish story was aboard the Buzz On. They started off on the reef catching snapper and a grouper, and then went out in the afternoon to try for a sailfish. They spotted a pair of wahoo swimming and managed to hook and land both of them, one being 50 lbs and the other being a monstrous 80 lbs! That's the biggest wahoo I can personally remember here!!! Congrats! You really never know what you'll catch on a fishing trip off Islamorada.

There wasn't many mahi or tuna reported lately, but the king mackerel have been starting to show up, and I think we'll start seeing a few more wahoo brought in too. The bottom fishing for snapper and grouper has been steady as well. Remember grouper season closes January 1st, so if you have a taste for grouper, better go catch them soon! Give us a call at 800 742 7945 and book your next fishing trip for this winter!

I was gone the past week so I missed out on the fun with the Islamorada Sailfish Tournament, but I did go to a really cool place near Golfito, Costa Rica. It's called the Zancudo Lodge, and I particated in the 4th annual Pelagic triple crown tournament. It was a 3 day tournament and our team won first place in the rooster fish division with 15 releases, 2nd place in the billfish division with 7 sailfish releases, and 2nd place overall in the tournament. The lodge is an incredible place, so if you ever find yourself going to Costa Rica, check them out! www.zancudolodge.com

Capt. Nick Stanczyk