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

1/26/2013 Great islamorada backcountry fishing in the winter!

We’re still having some great islamorada winter backcountry fishing in january here! The young boys today and dad had lots of fun catching puppy drum. We caught 30 or so in total jigging shrimp back at the cape. The colder water this time of year has fish in many of the creeks and such back there and on low tide they can only be in so many places! We also got some nice big black drum, one cut us off unfortunately after we chased him down, but did boat a large double digit one! Conrad also got a snook which we had been wanting to catch january fishing islamorada. We also caught plenty of sheepshead, ladyfish, jacks, and a few trout. All fish today caught on plain old jigs and shrimp, worked slowly on the bottom. The water at the cape is nice in certain places, though you must work around and find the corners and such that look good. A nice slow moving current and lightly cloudy green water is what you need to look for florida keys backcountry fishing at the cape.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903
rick@fishingislamorada.com

: sheepshead florida keys

: snook florida keys

: black drum islamorada

January 26, 2013 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Backcountry Fishing Reports 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

1/20/13 January Islamorada Fishing Report in the Gulf.

Had Rich and Luke Cromwell, regular customers of my brother and myself, today in the backcountry and gulf of islamorada fishing january. We started out near the cape and hit a spot on the way out to the gulf looking for some snooks. The action wasn’t hot and heavy and after no bites at the first spot, moved a little further in a creek and ended up pulling a couple snook out, one medium size and one little guy. Luke caught his first snook and was happy on this islamorada snook fishing charter. We then decided to move out into the gulf as the wind was dying out and tide was about to start falling in a bit, a great time to be out there for cobia fishing florida keys. We stopped on a bit of structure on the way out looking for some cobia or big redfish. Casted a couple of pinfish out and let them sit, but nothing happened. We pulled anchor and continued our trek west. As we drove we scoured the crab buoys in search of tripletail. We ended up finding plenty and catching 6 in total including 3 keepers – great for dinner! Triple tail fishing islamorada is great when it is calm. Luke was happy with his first triple tail and did all the work, casting shrimp on a small hook with a bobber up current of the buoys and letting them drift back to the fish – WHAM! He is on! Had a nice permit surprise us and swim under the boat while boating one fish, however we weren’t ready in time and he swam off into the gulf. Never no what will happen on a january islamorada fishing report! We made our way to the wreck just as the tide changed. Put a few pinfish out and in no time had a big cobia on of 15+ lbs. Luke fought him for a while and he didn’t want to give up but we finally got him, lip gaffed for a picture, and released. Again Luke is happy with his first cobia – what a great day! We caught 3 more cobia, as well as plenty of jacks. Some cobia we sight casted too which was fun. Had one goliath bite on a live bait on the bottom but unfortunately missed him, and then a shark stole the bait. We then ran back to the islamorada everglades fishing in search of some trout. We ended the day in some runoffs and caught a handful of nice size trout, islamorada trout fishing is good in the channel run offs in the winter time. Great end to a spectacular day, Luke and Rich cannot wait to come back to the florida keys fishing!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903
rick@fishingislamorada.com