Fishing Reports

12/3/14 Reef Fishing in Islamorada

It’s definitely “winter-time” fishing here in Islamorada now! We’ve had a few cold fronts come through the last few weeks and we are seeing the usual suspects while out there fishing. Each trip on my charter boat, Bn’M II at Bud n’ Mary’s Marina, has been a little different. Conditions change everyday but we’ve caught plenty of fish by the end of each Islamorada full day fishing trip. We’ve had quite a few families out fishing the last couple weeks and it’s been great seeing the smiles all the kids have had while catching fish! We’ve been live baiting while kite fishing and slow trolling for sailfish, king mackerel, and the occasional mahi and blackfin tuna. A couple days we caught a surprising amount of mahi for late November, but I wouldn’t expect to catch tons of them throughout the winter. I really haven’t put much time in for wahoo or cobia yet, but I have seen a couple around the dock. They should only get better as the weeks pass. We’ve been doing a lot of anchoring down for bottom fishing lately too. A few days the conditions were tough, with the current going into the wind. But after moving a couple times and trying both the shallow patch reefs and the deeper main reef we’ve caught a bucket full of fish each trip! We’ve had plenty of yellowtail snapper, a few big mangrove snapper, a couple mutton snapper, a few black groupers, and had a surprise amberjack the other day. Send me an email to bnmcharters@gmail.com and let me know if you’d like to book a fishing trip.

Tight Lines,

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

December 3, 2014 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Fishing Reports Offshore Fishing Reports

11/8/14 November Backcountry Fishing in Islamorada

We’re a good way into November and are officially in ‘fall’ fishing mode here in the Florida Keys. We’ve had a real taste of colder weather we had a good front about a week ago that dropped temperatures down in the high 50s here. That chilled the water temps down nicely they are back in the mid 70s now but that gave us a few real good days of backcountry inshore fishing in the florida keys. We had an excellent day with redfish and snook catching over 3 dozen fish a few days ago, mostly redfish on the bottom of the tides in channel runoffs. The last couple of days I’ve been snook fishing and that has been pretty good we got double digit snook each day the last two days. They’ve been eating pilchards which are readily available on the shorelines of Islamorada. We catch them fresh every morning usually. The snook fishing has been decent it’s not a bite every cast and often it requires a good bit of chumming to get them going, but we’ve been able to get a good catch with some hard work. Elsewhere the patch reefs have been strong with snapper, porgy, and hogfish. The spanish mackerel bite has not really fired up red hot yet, though that should get good with another front which we may be getting this weekend. If your looking to come experience fishing in the everglades now is a great time. Or if you want a half day of action and good eating fish, the patch reefs of islamorada are a great option too. Give me a call let’s go fishing!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

November 8, 2014 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Backcountry Fishing Reports Fishing Reports

Fall fishing in Islamorada with Capt. Nick Stanczyk on the Bn’M II

The Fall is definitely my favorite time of year to swordfish in Islamorada, but it’s a fun time of year on edge of the reef as well. Our swordfish streak has continued. We’ve caught 1 or more fish on 16 consecutive trips, including a couple on each of our last two trips. The Islamorada Offshore fishing charters have mostly been fishing on the edge of reef, wrecks, and shallow patch reefs. Conditions change each day, but lately we’ve had snapper, grouper, mackerel, barracuda, shark, a couple mahi, a couple blackfin tuna, and had a couple sailfish on, but the sails won the battle. As we get more into winter we should have more and more sailfish opportunities, a few wahoo, more cobia, etc. Send me an email to bnmcharters@gmail.com if you’d like to try your luck live baiting, bottom fishing, or deep drop swordfishing!

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

November 5, 2014 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Fishing Reports Offshore Fishing Reports

End of October Florida Keys Backcountry Fishing Report

We are near the end of October and things are really starting to feel like Fall here in Islamorada, Florida Keys. We have had a couple of ‘cool fronts’ where the weather has gotten down to 70 degrees or so, which has helped cool the water down a bit. This has made some of the inshore fish happy especially snook and redfish. The fishing around the mainland cape and some of the island moats and channel runoffs had been good during and right after these fronts. We had some good days of snook and redfish fishing, it was very nice to see some redfish move into these areas as they had been very shallow for most of the summer. Bait has been thick we are in the midst of the fall bait run, and many hungry predators are right nearby. Tarpon can often be seen busting big balls of bait which is an awesome thing to see. Though we have not had the craziness of thousands of tarpon which we saw the last few years during this spectacle, but seems to be fish much more spread out and not as many numbers. We’ve had luck though catching tarpon the last couple weeks, one day we caught 5 out of 12 which was phenomenal! And most days that we have tried we have had luck catching at least one, plus plenty of big blacktips sharks to keep busy. A few of the big winter time tarpon have been in the mix too we had several fish the last week over 100 lbs. In the gulf there have been a handful of spanish mackerel, that fishing should really start to heat up in November and further out in the gulf cobia and tripletail can be found. The patch reefs have been very good too I was out there a few days. We had good action fishing just shrimp with nice size porgies, lots of mutton snappers, yellowtail, bar jacks, and a few hogfish. Had a keeper mutton on the last two trips out there as well which is nice to see on the shallow patches. November is filling up fast give me a call if you want to get out on the water and fish, it is a great time as things are cooling off! 305-747-6903

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

October 28, 2014 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Backcountry Fishing Reports Fishing Reports

October Offshore Fishing Islamorada Florida

It’s been a mixed bag of fish here while fishing in Islamorada in October 2014! The swordfish bite has been as exciting as ever! We’ve caught fish our past 13 trips in a row since Mid September! We have released many of the fish, and have kept some for dinner, with the biggest pushing 200 lbs! Most trips have been 2 – 3 fish but we did have 5 on one, and a few with 1 fish. We will start fishing the reef and wrecks more and more the next few months. The sailfish will be the next exciting fish of the season that we target. There’s still some blackfin tuna and mahi around, although the mahi will thin out as we get into November. We should start catching some more grouper, wahoo, and king mackerel as the water cools too. Shoot me an email to bnmcharters@gmail.com when you’re ready to set up your private fishing charter in Islamorada!

Capt. Nick Stanczyk