Capt. Rick Stanczyk's Fishing Islamorada

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!

: islamorada sailfish

: florida keys sailfish

: Islamorada mahi

: yellowtail snapper

: cero mackerel

January 12, 2013 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Fishing Reports Offshore Fishing Reports

1-9-13 Islamorada Fishing Report in January

Now I don’t get out flats fishing in Islamorada too often, but today after finishing some maintenance on the Bn’M, I went out with our friend Capt. Dave, My Dad, and Sara in search of some Florida Keys Bonefish. Now Islamorada definitely used to be one of the best places in the world to catch bonefish, but the last 10 years they have because quite difficult to catch. You need patience and have to be willing to invest lots of time in search of the fish. We had a couple hours of day light left when we set up, and with the windy condition we set the anchor out and waited for them to come to us. It didn’t take long to get a bite. After fishing about 20 minutes my Dad released the first bonefish in Islamorada. It was a decent fish, around 5 lbs. It was the first bonefish I’ve seen caught in a while, and they are without question one of the friskiest and best fighting fish around. We caught a few small sharks the next hour and were gonna call it a day. But right before we headed home Sara hooked up. After a short battle she caught and released another bonefish, not a big one, maybe a few pounds, but a bone is a bone. After that we pulled the anchor and headed home. It was nice to get out for a couple hours and relax with some friends and family. I really prefer offshore Islamorada Fishing, but it was a nice change of scenery for sure.

: Islamorada Bonefish

: bonefish in islamorada

: bonefishing islamorada

January 10, 2013 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Fishing Reports

1-6-13 Islamorada Reef Fishing Report

It’s been a warm week here in while deep sea fishing in Islamorada. The air temperatures have around 80 degrees. On our offshore Islamorada fishing charters the past few days we have been staying on the edge of the reef. Today we started out the day trying for a sailfish. We put up 2 kites with 2 baits on each one. We caught a few bonito right away, and patiently waited for a sail bite. Finally after a couple hours we had an Islamorada Sailfish in the spread. He grabbed the left short kite bait but blew it out very fast. He followed the bait around for a few seconds and we tried to pitch him a fresh live one on a spinning rod, but it was too late. He knew we were up to no good and left us alone. In the afternoon we fished around a wreck a had lots of action with King Mackerel. We kept a few and lost a few around the boat. An unexpected dolphin (mahi) swam by and we caught her for dinner too. We also released a few small amberjack. After that we caught and released a few barracuda before heading home. The day before I took 2 half day Islamorada reef fishing trips. In the morning we anchored down and caught our limit of yellowtail snapper. They aren’t huge, averaging about 1 lb, but they are extremely tasty and fun to catch. We then went to a wreck for a half an hour and caught a few king mackerel to 15 lbs. In the afternoon we caught 10 more yellowtails for dinner and then went out to the deeper water. Unfortunately Lisa got a little sea sick so we went back in to shallower water and caught a couple barracudas before heading home a little early. The day before that we caught a few big amberjack to 48 lbs as well as releasing 1 of 2 sailfish. Book your Islamorada Fishing Trip Today!

Capt. Nick Stanczyk – bnmcharters@gmail.com

: Islamorada Reef Fish

: Islamorada Sailfish

January 7, 2013 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Fishing Reports Offshore Fishing Reports

1/4/13 Gulf and Backcountry Fishing Islamorada Report

Well it doesn’t get any prettier than it did today on 1/4/13 while fishing islamorada! We worked some island shorelines on the high in tide in the everglades national park first things this morning. We picked several redfish, black drum, and a few sheepshead in this fashion casting shrimp. On the tide change we went looking for a snook around some other island moats. We did find one eager participant, alas we broke him off boatside. However we did end up catching some more black drum jigging the bottom, as well as some more sheepshead from around the mangrove trees! We then hit some scattered muddy waters in some ditches further towards the gulf area and got into a mess of trout, jack crevalle, ladyfish, pompano, and one juvenile permit. What a mixed bag for this islamorada fishing report! Continued cruising on out into the gulf of mexico along the crab bouys, and saw several tripletail fish. We caught some for dinner, mostly again casting shrimp on a small cork, dragging it to ’em, and WHAM! These high flying acrobats are fun on light tackle, and not bad blackened on the grill either. A gulf wreck was next on the agenda, and we caught some cobias off of it, as well as a goliath grouper that took some convincing to get to bite. Another permit was had in this area too – you never know what to except fishing the florida keys! To end the day we caught some spanish mackerel closer to home in Islamorada. And so ends another tale of wonder fishing islamorada backcountry.

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

: islamorada goliath grouper

: islamorada permit

: islamorada tripletail

: islamorada cobia

January 5, 2013 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Backcountry Fishing Reports Fishing Reports

1-3-12 Islamorada Fishing in January

We ventured out fishing the last couple days on Islamorada Fishing Charters and had lots of action on both the 2nd and the 3rd of January. Yesterday we focused on sailfishing in the morning, but before that a boat called us in on a big school of cobia and we boated a nice 35 lber. We then started looking for the sailfish. The sails were up inside the reef in 35′ to 50′ of water chasing big schools of ballyhoo, also known as showering. We then will sight fish and run to the “showers” and cast at the fish when we see them. We saw probably a dozen fishing “showering” but could only manage 3 bites. Fortunately we caught and released 2 of the bites we had. After that we decided to try some wreck fishing in Islamorada and caught a nice king mackerel about 15 lbs right away. I then decided to send down a big bait in hopes for a goliath grouper. It didn’t take long to get a bite, but after a 15 minute battle we had the big fish next to the boat, but it wasn’t a goliath, it was a 7′ bull shark! Somewhere around 250 lbs! After that we went and released a couple barracuda for fun. Today we took an Islamorada reef fishing trip and started out the day by catching live bait, including ballyhoo and cigar minnows. From there we anchored down on a deep reef and caught 3 king mackerel around 7 or 8 lbs. After that we caught some big crevalle jacks from 10 to 15 lbs on a wreck. We also had a kite out and had a hammer head shark come up chasing the blue runner, and after a 30 second chase the shark had the bait. We had the 5′ hammerhead hooked on 20 lb test and after a 20 minute fight we had the shark next to the boat and removed the hooks. Next we decided to catch something else to pull hard so we found a pair of amberjacks at 20 lbs and 40 lbs. We kept them for dinner and then made our way back to the edge of the reef. Within 15 minutes we found a pair of sailfish swimming over the sand bottom and managed to get one bite. The fish came up jumping and we caught and released the 30 lb sailfish after a 5 minute fight. But our day wasn’t over yet. As we were moving up the reef we found a big stingray with a school of cobia following him! Which is how we catch them this time of year. We caught 2 cobia off him but both were undersize, and then we decided to call it a day and head in from our day of fishing in Islamorada.