Offshore Fishing Reports

2-3-13 Offshore fishing in Islamorada

We’ve had great weather here the past couple of days while fishing in Islamorada. The temperatures have been from the Mid 60’s to the Low 70’s and the sun has been out for most of each day. I had John and his dad out on the Bn’M, down from New York for a couple of days of Islamorada Fishing. Today we started out by catching bait, including cigar minnows and ballyhoo and then headed out just past the reef and put the kites up for sailfish. We also put a bottom rod down, which was great idea because after about 30 minutes we got a bite and John caught a fat 14 lb mutton snapper! Great way to start out the day. After that I went back in the tuna tower and headed just inside the reef to look for some sails since we didn’t have any bites on the kites. After about 20 minutes I came across a big sting ray and there was a school of cobia following him. We caught 4 or 5 fish, all just under legal size to keep, but still some good action. After that we went out to a wreck and caught a handful of king mackerel. John then told me he was happy with what we had and he really wanted to focus on trying to get a sailfish. It didn’t take long and we found a sailfish up shallow in 30′ of water chasing a school of ballyhoo, but he didn’t want anything to do with our bait. We saw a couple more sailfish the next few hours and most of them would look at the bait, but wouldn’t eat it. Finally at about 2 p.m. we found a triple header of sailfish up in 25′ of water, and we made a good cast and one inhaled a ballyhoo. After about a 10 minute fight John released a 40 lb sailfish. We called it a day and headed in after that. Yesterday we missed a sailfish right off the bat and then John hooked one and fought it for about 10 minutes. The fish sounded and then came up jumping and unfortunately he threw the hook while jumping around. We did catch a couple porgy for dinner, and had some action with a big Barracuda and bonita. On the way home we came across a school of cobia as well and released a few short fish and then caught one keeper, a healthy 25 lber! All in all the fishing hasn’t been easy, but we’ve been working hard each day and putting together some decent catches on our offshore fishing charters in Islamorada!

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

bnmcharters@gmail.com

: islamorada cobia

: islamorada mutton snapper

February 4, 2013 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Fishing Reports Offshore Fishing Reports

1-29-13 Reef Fishing in Islamorada

I’ve had the last couple days off here from fishing in Islamorada, so it’s time to tell everybody what’s been biting. Our last trip our we focused on sails, unfortunately the bite was slow and we didn’t come across any, but we did still have plenty of action for the kids. We caught some little tunny’s while kite fishing, then we caught barracuda while slow trolling, and finally we did some bottom fishing with fresh shrimp. The shrimp produced some great eating fish, including a couple hogfish and a few porgy’s, making for a delicious fresh fish dinner while Islamorada Fishing! The previous day the target species was sailfish, and after a few hours of hunting around we were hooked up! We found the fish up shallow chasing a school of ballyhoo, and after a few casts he ate our bait. After a 20 minute fight on 15 lb test we had the est. 50 lb sailfish boatside and took a couple quick pictures and then sent him on his way back into the ocean. We also caught a handful of dinner fish including hogfish, yellowtail snapper, and trigger fish. The day before that we caught a big variety of fish on our deep sea Islamorada Fishing Charter. We had big crevalle jack, decent size amberjack, a huge red snapper (unfortunately it had to be released due to the closure in federal waters), atlantic sharpnose shark, almaco jack, lots of lane snapper, and a couple porgy.

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

bnmcharters@gmail.com

: islamorada sailfish

: islamorada red snapper

: islamorada hogfish

: islamorada crevalle jack

: islamorada amberjark

January 29, 2013 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Fishing Reports Offshore Fishing Reports

1-22-13 Islamorada Offshore Fishing Report for January

The Offshore Islamorada Fishing Charters have been exciting the last few days here. We catch a wide variety of fish here while fishing in Islamorada, and use quite a few different methods while doing it. Today we went out for some “deep dropping”, where we bottom fish anywhere from 400 – 600′ using multiple hook rigs. The action started right away and by noon we limited out on blueline tilefish, snowy grouper, and yellowedge grouper. These are the only grouper we can keep down here while deep sea fishing in Islamorada right now since the shallow water groupers are closed for harvest until May 1st. We then headed in for a little bit of January Reef Fishing in Islamorada and caught a keeper mutton snapper and a few other fish. Yesterday we fished 2 trips and in the morning we caught our limit of kingfish and a couple of barracuda. In the Afternoon they guys really wanted sailfish, and I explained that the Florida Keys Sailfishing had been a little tough the last few days, but they said they wanted to take the chance and knew there was a possibility we wouldn’t get any bites. After a few slow hours we finally caught a tuna and a decent snapper, and then finally got a bite from a sailfish. We released the Islamorada Sailfish after a 30 minute acrobatic fight and put the baits back out for a few more minutes. It wasn’t 2 minutes later till we hooked another sailfish and after a 10 minute fight we released our 2nd sailfish of the trip. Get on down here for some Islamorada Fishing Charters soon!

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

bnmcharters@gmail.com

: islamorada sailfish

: islamorada yellowedge grouper

: islamorada snowy grouper

: islamorada yellowtail snapper

: islamorada tuna

January 23, 2013 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Fishing Reports Offshore Fishing Reports

1-17-13 Islamorada Reef Fishing

Today was kind of a weird day with weather while fishing in Islamorada. It was a pre-frontal day, with the morning starting out with a south-east wind and then no wind with quite a bit of rain, and then a north-west wind. We started out the day by catching live ballyhoo and cigar minnows for bait. The Bn’M was now ready for some Islamorada Fishing! We headed out another mile and fishing just outside the reef. We tried for a sailfish for an hour, but we never had a sailfish bite. We did catch a nice blackfin tuna though while trying. The next couple hours brought rain on and off, and we kept the baits out but didn’t have any action. Once the rain let up we decided to anchor down and do some bottom fishing. We caught plenty of nice yellowtail snapper for dinner. We also caught a nice gag grouper, which would have been a keeper, but since the season is closed he went back in the ocean. We picked off a couple cero mackerel and then made another move. About 1:30 p.m. we found a sailfish swimming over the sand bottom. I thought this might be our shot, we made a couple good casts, but the fish had no interest at all and kept on his way. We then decided to go for some more action and caught a handful of big barracudas up to 15 lbs. With the clock winding down we only had a little while left on our Islamorada offshore fishing trip. A couple boats to the south of me found a big school of cobia so we raced down there just in time for some action. Our first bite was a nice 25 lb cobia and was the fish of the day! We also caught a smaller one before wrapping up our deep sea fishing charter in the Florida Keys.

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

bnmcharters@gmail.com

: islamorada cobia

: islamorada tuna

: islamorada gag grouper

: islamorada snapper

January 18, 2013 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Fishing Reports Offshore Fishing Reports

1-11-13 Islamorada Reef Fishing in January

Islamorada Fishing has been very active the last couple of days! Today on our Deep Sea Florida Keys Fishing Charter we started out by catching some live ballyhoo. After we had our bait we threw a few out and caught a couple nice cero mackerel up to about 7 lbs. After that we went Kite fishing with the target species being sailfish. We had one bite a couple hours into the day and unfortuntely lost it. At about lunch time Dave asked if we could do something different to have some action at least, and I said we could definitely anchor down and probably catch some yellowtail snapper for dinner. As soon as we anchored we put a kite out for a mackerel and a sailfish piled on! We had the fish on for a few minutes and I thought we were going to catch it, but then we broke the fish off. It had been a long day up to that point, but the good news was that the yellowtails had made their way up to the back of the boat and were eating right behind the chum bag. Within an hour we caught our limit of 30 yellowtails, including one monster weighing 5 lbs! I told Dave we had an hour left to fish and we’d look for another sail. Well two minutes later I saw a frigate bird dive down and we raced over and threw out a couple ballyhoo. A pair of sailfish came up and we hooked a double header! Brad got a quick release on his first ever sail and then it was time to chase Dave’s down. After a 30 minute fight we had the beatiful sailfish next to the boat and took a few pics. We were using 15 lb test spinning tackle and he did a great job angling. Dave said it was one of the most exciting fish he ever caught and decided to get a release mount done by Gray’s Taxidermy. I’m sure the mount will look great on his wall and will last forever! Yesterday Reef Fishing in Islamorada we also caught and released 2 sailfish and caught a few mahi, which were a nice suprise since it’s January and not really season for them!