10/3/18 October Backcountry Fishin' Report

Well September has come to an end and we are into October.  It officially feels like Fall - we've started to get some harder northeasterly winds, which have cooled things down slightly in the mornings.  Also lots of bird life showing up back there.  The 'fall bait run' has slightly started it's not really in full effect, but definitely some schools of pilchards, black mullets, and what not showing up in many areas.  I've heard further up the coasts there is a much stronger bait run which hopefully will make it's way down here shortly.  September was some absolutely fantastic fishing.  I had one of the best tarpon months I'd had when I looked at my trip-to-catch ratio.  We never missed a day and landed multiple tarpon every day during September, some days with double digit bites, just great!  That has slowed down though the last few days as the winds have kicked up to 20 mph, though some of the smaller tarpon are biting well in many of the creeks, canals, and islands around the everglades.  Yesterday I did some filming with Fishing Australia TV and we caught a couple juvenile tarpon, some snook, and a redfish for a backcountry SLAM.  Today we did similar getting a couple small tarpon, a real nice snook, a redfish, some big sharks, and a few other scallywags.  As I said last week was some epic days of tarpon fishing, we had a couple days landing 5, one with 4, and one with 2 and a beast of a snook that was 18 lbs.  Also some nice tripletails around we got a real nice one last week.  Capt. Bill Bassett has had a few snook and redfish in the backcountry, and still getting some bonefish around town as well.  Capt. John Johansen has had some good tarpon action in the backcountry.  Capt. Mike Bassett had a very good day with snook last week.  Capt. Perry Scuderi had mixed it up with triple tail, snook, sharks, and tarpon last week on a couple fun days of fishing.  Capt. Chris Daly had some good snook and redfish fishing a week or so again too, as did Capt. Jeff Beeler a couple days ago.  October as I said is usually the time for the fall bait run which leads to some of the most epic fishing we sometimes see all year!  The crowds are away and the fishing is good.  A perfect time to come!  Give us a shout if you are interested at 305-664-2461.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

9/27/18 Islamorada Offshore Fishing Report

It's hard to believe September has almost come to an end! It's been over a year since Hurricane Irma wrecked Havoc on the Keys and fortunately we are almost re built bigger and better than before here at Bud n' Mary's Marina! It's "off-season" for tourists this time of year in South Florida, but don't think for a second that we still don't have some incredible fishing this time of year! Yes the mahi get a little more hit and miss as we hit September and October, but we have seen some incredbile catches the past few weeks! A few trips have been some of the best catches we have seen this entire year! Not everyday is a home run, (yes it's always fishing), but we saw a lot of "gaffer" size fish in the 10 - 20 lb range , with a few bigger bulls, and still plenty of schoolie size fish in the 3 - 7 lb range. The Blackfin tuna bite has been decent overall, with tuna on most of the trips. A couple weeks ago was very good, and the past week has been good for a few boats but not every day. The sharks have been fericous as well, making it tough on some tirps to get a tuna in the boat. We saw a couple stud blackfin tuna in the 28 - 30 lb range and the rest have been "football" size to 20 lbs. The fall is typically some of the best blackfin tuna fishing we see, with a lot of medium size fish in the 7 - 15 lb range, so hopefully the full on action starts back up soon! 

Back on the reef there has been a mix of yellowtail, mangrove, and mutton snapper on the reef and wrecks. A few king mackerel have been showing up, a fair amount of yellowjacks, and the Buzz On even had a suprise cobia yesterday. The dauntless released a sailfish a few days back as well. We should start seeing more and more sailfish as it gets later into the fall, and hopefully it will be a good winter on them. 

Way offshore we have been doing our fair share of swordfishing. The bite really turned on for a couple weeks averaging 3 - 4 bites per trip, but the last few trips has been slower. Our best trip we went 4 for 4,  a few other trips we had 1 fish, one trip we had three fish, and we have missed our bite on two of the last four trips which means we came home empty handed. The fish have average 40 - 140 lbs and we had one real nice one at 248 lbs last weekend. When swordfishing you are fishing for 1 - 2 bites on most of the trips, so if you make that bite count you will have a successful day. 

We still have disocunted rooms at the Marina the next couple months so give us a call in the marina office at 305 664 2461 if you're ready to come down and go fishing for a couple days! Avoid the crowds and cash in on some good fishing! 

Tight Lines

Capt. Nick Stanczyk 

End of August 2018 Islamorada deep sea fishing report

Another month has passed here at Bud n' Mary's marina in Islamorada, Florida Keys! Business is slowing down as we are hitting "off season" with the kids going to back to school and summer travel coming to an end. We have had both some great days offshore as well as some slow ones the last couple of weeks. Mahi and Blackfin tuna have still been the main target offshore. The mahi bite has been day to day, with a handful of incredbile catch with nice size fish from 10 - 20 lbs, but then there was a few really slow days right next to the good ones. The next month I believe we will see mahi caught, but it is getting to the time of year where it won't be as consistent as early summer. The Fall blackfin tuna bite is starting off in full swing right now too! They are on almost all of the humps, but the sharks are on some of them too! A few days the sharks were so aggresive it was hard to get a tuna past them, but if you were patient you could put a nice catch together! 

 

 

Our snowy grouper and blueline tilefish season just came to an end the last day of August, but we saw a of each species caught the last week of season. It will re open in May 2019. We have had quite a bit of wind the last few days, so some boats have just been staying on the reef where it was a little calmer. The hot mangrove snapper bite we saw all summer is slowing down as expected, but there is still some around for dinner. The yellowtails have been biting most days and there's been a few kingfish on the reef. 

 

Way offshore the swordfish bite has been on and off like it was all summer, but we did have a few really good days. Two different trips we caught 3 fish, two trips we had two fish, and two trips with one fish. Of course we had a couple trips with 0 fish as well. One of the fish we caught was an absolute beast that weighed in at 423 lbs!!! We have released half of the recent fish and kept half. The next couple of months are as good as any for a chance to get a swordfish off Islamroada, so if it's on your bucket list keep that in mind! 

 

 

Give the marina office a call at 305 664 2461 when you're ready to book your next Islamorada Fishing trip! Remember we have off season rates on our hotel rooms and houseboats if you want to stay on property to be close to the boats!! 

Tight Lines 

Capt. Nick Stanczyk 

8/17/18 August Backcountry Fishin' Report

August is here and things are finally starting to slow down a bit with business as is par for the course this time of year.  We are not experiencing any negative effect from the Red Tide on the west coast of Florida - the water is clean and the fish are biting!  We had a very good summer and were thankful for that especially after dealing with IRMA last year.  The fishing in July was just epic and really for all different types of species.  August things seemed to have slowed down a little bit but there are definitely still fish to be caught, some days you just have to work a little harder at it.  We have definitely had a lot more wind in August as compared to July so that has made things a little tougher but at least kept the heat down.  There are still a good amount of tarpon around on that front.  I was away for a week but have fished a handful of days and we've still been seeing some decent size groups of fish.  They are not biting as well as they were in July, we've had to put time in to get a few shots, but it's definitely still been worthwhile.  A lot of the fish also have been larger size in the 80 to 100 lb range, so still a chance at some big ones too.  Capt. John Johansen had some good size tarpon earlier this month back there too.  Snook fishing has slowed down as well though it's still been OK.  Some of the fishing around the islands has still been good for them though the beaches/mainland areas have slowed down significantly.  There have been a few though and some baby tarpon and occasional redfish as well.  I know Capt. Mike Bassett has been catching a few back there as has Capt. Ted Wilson.  Capt Clyde Upchurch has had some good fishing around many of the islands for snapper and snook, and some trout in the bay as well.  Capt. Mike Walter has still been picking away at some tarpon around the bridges in the evenings.  That is still a possibility if you are wanting to get out in the late afternoon.  The mangrove snappers are showing back up in the bays and cuts too if a little half day for some action and dinner sounds good to you.  Capt. Bill Bassett reported some good snapper fishing a few days ago.  The next couple months are generally very slow with business here, especially in September.  Fishing can still be good though and it's nice to be down here without any of the crowds around.  The nice thing about fishing in the backcountry is you get it all to yourself, so your captain can really hit just about every spot he wants to and not have to worry about other boats being there.  Also it is generally calm which leads to nice water which leads to good fishing.  October fishing usually gets even better as we start to get the fall bait run... don't forget about that sometimes that is some of the best tarpon and snook fishing we get all year!  Give us a shout if you want to get out there, we are offering our off season rates on rooms.  305-664-2461

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing

8/15/18 Mid August Offshore Fishing report for Islamorada

Summer is coming to an end for a lot of kids and we had a bunch of families fishing here the past couple weeks. School is starting back up now so the family travel is slowing down, but it was nice to see the next generation of fishermen and fisherwoman get on and off the boats each morning! The mahi bite has been on and off in august. We did see a couple more SLAMMER BULL'S, including a 50.5 lber on the redfish and a 40.2 lber on the cloud nine! The first week of August was pretty good overall but the last week has been hit and miss. A few boats each day would still come back in with a box of fish but when half or more of the boats struggle just to catch a few fish it definitely isn't as consistent as we like to see! A lot of boats were finding plenty of fish but there was tons of undersize mahi, which we call "shakers" , since we shake them off next to the boat back in the water. It's always fishing so nothing is a guarantee, but all the boats here always give it a good effort! Other offshore fish we have seen include blackfin tuna and then some deep drop fish like grouper and tilefish. I think the dolphin bite will pick back up with this south east wind, as we usually see some gaffer size fish this time of year in the 8 - 15 lb range. Blueline tilefish and snowy grouper will remain open the rest of the month but come September we won't be able to keep them. In addition to the tuna on the humps we have seen some big dusky sharks too!!! Our friends also caught a nice wahoo on their private boat trolling one day as well. 

The snapper bite the last couple months has been great on the reef. It was one of the best years we have seen on mangrove (gray) snapper, so that made up for some of the slower mahi days the past week. The Miss Islamorada Party boat has been on them almost every day, with the exception of a couple days when the water was very clear and the current died. Some of the charter boats also threw some yellowtail action in the mix. With the live baits out we saw a few kingfish on the wrecks and reef as well as some big yellowjacks. 

Way offshore the swordfish bite has still been slower than normal, but the Catch 22 did have one very exciting trip where they were fighting a swordfish and a mako shark bit the tail off! The got the majority of the swordfish in and then caught the mako shark on a small piece of the swordfish! 

Tight Lines and remember to call the marina office at 305 664 2461 to book you're next Islamorada Fishing Trip! We have hotel tooms and houseboats for lodging options on property as well!! 

Capt. Nick Stanczyk