7/30/18 End Of July Deep Sea Fishing Report

July was one of the nicest weather months we have seen in a long time here in the Florida Keys. Most days were light winds with sunshine, and there was only a few days with wind and thunderstorms. Overall the mahi bite was very good for the month. Sure not everyday is great, and there are days where some boats fill the box and others just have a handful of fish, but overall we saw some great fishing. July was the month of the big "slammer" mahi for sure. The Warbird brought the biggest to the dock this season with a 53 lber!!! The Cloud Nine had a 47 lber one trip and there was quite a few other fish in the 30 - 40 lb range. The schoolies were nice size and we had quite a few gaffer size fish in the 8 - 15 lb range. As we approach Fall we should see some of the best blackfin tuna fishing coming up the next few months. 

There was still a few billfish caught trolling including a couple blue marlin, white marlin, and sailfish. The blackfin tuna bite was fair. The bite was good for a few days and slow for a few. A lot of boats bottom fished out deep and we saw blueline tilefish, barrelfish, yellowedge grouper, and snowy grouper. On the reef we had great mangrove snapper fishing. Many boats limited out on their reef trips, plus theres been some yellowtail and a couple mutton snapper. 

The swordfish bite was slower than expected in July. Usually it's one of our best months but we had more slow trips than good trips. One of our good trips was while shooting a show with Nicky Sinden (The women's world record holder for swordfish) from New Zealand for her series called "Addicted to Fishing". That trip we had 2 bites and tagged and released a 90 lber and a 50 lber. One trip the week prior we released a 50 lber as well. A handful of trips resulted in no bites at all. I think the bite will pick back up soon, and hopefully this Fall is good fishing. 

If you want a shot a mahi, blackfin tuna, or just want to stay on the reef and catch some snapper for dinner give us a call in the office at 305 664 2461 and we'll set you up with an Islamorada Fishing Charter!!! Remember we have lodging options available right at the marina too! 

Capt. Nick Stanczyk 

7/20/18 July Backcountry Fishing Report

July is marching on and the fishing has been absolutely incredible!  The weather has been nice and calm just about every day, so conditions have been ideal and it seems all kinds of fishing have been good for the most part.  I've been tarpon fishing mostly myself and it's been the best fishing I think I may have ever seen for a good long period of time.  I've already crushed my monthly 'tarpon total' by quite a few, and we still have 10 days to go this month.  That includes my best day ever which we landed a total of 16 tarpon!  Truly unbeleivable we will have to see how long it holds up.  Capt. John Johansen has been back there tarpon fishing with me quite a bit, as has Capt. Jeff Beeler, Capt. Ted Wilson, and Capt. Mike Venezia.  Capt. Mike Walter has had some good local tarpon fishing in the mornings, and still gettin out on a few evening trips and having good luck as well.  Yes if you are looking to catch the Silver King, it's definitely not too late.  The rest of thsi month and even August can still be very good fishing, I'm not sure how much longer this epic fishing will last but it can still be pretty good.  Aside from that the snook fishing back in everglades national park has been good too.  Capt. Jim Willcox has been catching them regularly on artificials along the shorelines and mangrove edges.  Capt. Bill Bassett has been in on that action too as has Capt. Mike Bassett and Capt. Chris Daly.  Capt. Jeff Oughton and Capt. Clyde Upchurch have had some good trout and snapper fishing in the bays as has Capt. Sid Bryant.  Capt. Perry Scuderi had his son out last week and had some nice tripletail and cobia.  Capt. Bruce Pollock had some nice bonefish the other evening out fun fishing with his son too.  Yes it's that time of year where anything can happen.  Look us up if you are interested in getting out we've got plenty of guides available and as you can see fishing is really good this summer.  August is right around the corner and it can still be good through then too.  GIve us a call today at 305-664-2461.

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

7/9/18 offshore fishing report

I'm Back!!! I apologize for the lack of reports and not keeping everyone up to date with whats been biting in islamorada! Instant Social Media has become the quickest and easiest way to get out the current fishing report, but since I had a number of people ask about the blog I wanted to get another post up asap! It was a very busy summer on the offshore boats and overall the fishing was good. The next couple weeks aren't slammed so if you want to get out on a fishing trip or need a hotel in Islamorada please give us a call at 305 664 2461 and we'll set you up! All types of fishing go up and down and other weeks are better thans others, the bite can turn on and off overnight! That being said the mahi bite overall was good but we did have some very slow days and some mediocre days in the mix. The last couple weeks we finally started seeing some "slammer" dolphin in the 20 - 40 lb range, and quite a few medium size fish in the 5 - 15 lb range. The last weeks boat have averaged 15 - 30 fish on their full day trips. Mahi will be our main target the next couple months while deep sea fishing in Islamorada. We have seen a handful of billfish caught while trolling too, a few sailfish , blue marlin and white marlin. We're not the best spot by any means to catch a marlin but you never know what you'll catch off Islamorada! 

 

Other fish we have caught have inlcuded blackfin tuna, both "footballs" in the 4 - 8 lb range and a few in the 15 - 30 lb range on live bait. A lot of boats have got in on the deep drop action and we saw more Yellowedge grouper caught this year ( in 400 - 700 of water) , then we've ever seen before! There's also been a few golden tilefish, barrelfish, plenty of blueline tilefish, and even a couple of wreckfish the past week! All of the deep water bottom fish are great eating so no complaints there! 

A few boats have been fishing the reef, especially on half days, and the yellowtail snapper bite has been decent and there's been a handful of mutton snapper. The mangrove snapper are just starting to spawn so we should see plenty of those the next couple weeks! The Miss Islamorada party boat had a keeper black grouper and a suprise cobia on one of their recent trips, so that made for some excitement. If you plan on fishing on the party boat please call ahead of time to make a reservation so we can put your name on the list. Remember we need a minimum of 10 people to fish! 305 664 2461. We also just added an instagram account for the Miss Islamorada so check them out at @missislamorada. 

 

Way offshore we have done a number of swordfish trips and the bite has been decent this summer. We haven't got them every trip but I would say an average of 3 out of 4 trips we get atleast 1 fish. The fish have ranged from 40 - 125 lbs lately but we did battle one over 200 lbs that got away on a recent trip. 

Thanks for reading our blog post and if you've had fun on a recent trip at bud n mary's marina we'd love a review on trip advisor. 

Tight Lines 

Capt. Nick Stanczyk 

 

6/24/18 June Backcountry Fishing Report update

Sorry for the lack of blog updates but we've been having a few issues with the blog as of late.  Every time I've tried to do a fishing report it would end up crashing on me and I'd lose all my work so I had gotten frustrated with it.  I've been very busy as of late with fishing, life, new baby, etc... so anyways it's been tough.  Things are slowing down a little now and I'm giving it another go so hopefully things will work OK.  We may try to get the blog on a new platform soon that is a little more up-to-date, mobile friendly, etc... Anyways we are into June and fishing has been stellar as of late.  I'm mostly a tarpon guy so that's my focus in the spring and summer.  Overall I will say we've had a good year, we had a very early start with the tarpon and things were good early.  Fishing got a little tougher in later May and early June.  Then the last several weeks I've been really having good fishing.  But I've been fishing different areas and getting up very early to make that happen but it's been paying off.  The last couple weeks we've caught a lot of tarpon with as many as nine in a day it's truly been incredible.  Also some really big summer time spawning snook have been making their appearance too.  I've caught a few in the 15 lb range which are very nice fish!  As of late though the last week it seems we are getting into our more traditional summer time routine with more fish showing up in the usual summer time channels and areas.  We had very good days with the tarpon the last couple days, yesterday I actually had struck out on my further run as the bait dried up in that area.  But we were able to recover and caught five nice tarpon on the way home in the last 2 hours.  I imagine the tarpon bite will stay good through July and it's my favorite time of year for tarpon fishing in the Florida Keys for sure.  Very little pressure on the fish and lots of them, with stable weather conditions.  What more could you ask for!  Other than tarpon we've had some nice triple tails floating along in the near gulf bays as well.  They've been fun and you can often get a shot or two at them while waiting for tarpon or sharks to bite.  We had a few decent days with snook in the last few weeks as well catching them on live pilchards or pinfish.  There has also been some nice trout and mangrove snapper in the bays as well which you can get on shrimp, cut bait, or even artificials.  Bonefish fishing has gotten very good this year.  Several guides have had some great days 'stake up' fishing where they put baits out on the flat and sit and wait for them to come along.  Capt. Bill Bassett has been doing a lot of that and had really good luck.  He got a nice 7 lber though sight fishing yesterday that was really cool, and a nice tarpon in the afternoon.  Capt. Jim Willcox today had some nice trout and jack crevelle on top waters fishing in the near gulf and everglades.  Capt. Perry Scuderi had a nice permit last week.  Capt. Skip Nielsen had a variety of big fish with some nice goliath groupers, tarpon, big sharks including a hammerhead, and others.  Capt. Chris Daly and Capt. Mike Bassett had some nice snook in the last few days.  Capt. Al Polofsky had a nice SLAM last week with a permit, bonefish, and tarpon for his angler.  Capt. Mark Hlis has had very good fly fishing for tarpon, going 14 or more trips in a row with catching at least one tarpon each time!  The summer time snook bite has been pretty good and should continue to be through July.  Fishing the shorelines of the everglades can be very producitve especially early in the morning.  Of course wear your long pants as the horse flies are bad this time of year.  We're hoping to get some permit showing up in the gulf soon for the summer time.  Unfortunately a lot of the structure where they use to congregate got moved around due to IRMA, but we hope with some investigative work we'll find some new areas they like in the next couple months.  It's that time of year where anything can happen with fishing, conditions are generally good with the calm weather and the water cleans up very nicely.  Full days give you the time to make the further runs to better fishing.  Give us a call and get on the hot bite!  Please check out my personal blog if you are interested in the summe time tarpon bite at islamorada tarpon fishing.

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

P.S. Also please note we normally do not boat tarpon for pictures, but smaller fish like the ones pictured under 40 inches you are allowed to temporarily possess for pictures.  We try to make sure not to drop them or wipe off any excess slime, and release them quickly and healthily for next time.

 

4/23/18 April reef/offshore fishing report

What a week at Bud n' Mary's Marina!!! On April 19th I had Patrick out aboard the Broad Minded for a swordfish trip. It was quiet all day, but late in the afternoon we hooked up. Patrick wanted to hand crank so we got him in the harness and he went to work. After a two hour battle we put the gaff and harpoon in a 600.5 lb swordfish!!! It's one of the biggest ever caught in the Florida Keys and the biggest we've ever seen at Bud n' Mary's Marina since we started daytime swordfishing back in 2003!!! Congrats Patrick!!! The catch 22 also fished that day and released 2 swords and kept 1 for dinner. We released 2 swords our next trip on the Broad Minded, but we didn't get any yesterday. 

 

The mahi bite has been fair. We had a couple good days and boats had 20 - 30 fish, but then the next day there was just a few caught. It's still a little hit and miss right now, but it should only get better and more consistent each week. We saw fish from 3 - 25 lbs caught the last few days. The blackfin tuna bite has been great, with a lot of "footballs" in the 3 - 7 lb range and a few nicer ones from 12 - 25 lbs. There's been some big amberjacks and sharks still around too. 

 

On the reef there's been plenty of yellowtail snapper and a few mutton snapper in the mix. Permit have been pretty good on the wrecks, but there not a guarantee by any means. About a week ago we had a weak cold front and it sparked the sailfish bite for a couple days, but then the bite really slowed down. All of a sudden two days ago the current picked up with a little bit of wind around lunch time and almost all the boats that were on the reef caught sailfish! The Catch 22 managed 6 releases, the indigineous had 3 and a few othter boats had a couple. However, the next day the current let up and there was only 1 sailfish caught amongst the fleet. We are looking forward to May 1st because grouper season opens up, so get ready! 

 

Give us a call in the marina office at 305 664 2461 to book you're next Islamorada Fishing Charter and we'll set you up with a great boat! Remember we have lodging options and "galley girls" cafe is open daily at 6 am. We recommend you order food the day before though so it's ready for your fishing trip the next day! Galley girls can be reached at 305 664 0166. 

Tight Lines

Capt. Nick Stanczyk