12-29-12 Islamorada Reef Fishing in Late December

I’ve been fishing in Islamorada aboard the Bn’M everyday since Christmas. Fishing hasn’t been easy, but we’ve been putting together some great catches the past couple of days. While winter time fishing the Florida Keys we usually stay near the reef, about 4 miles from shore. Today we started out with a pair of nice “smoker” king mackerel, both around 20 lbs. We were near a wreck so I decided to send down a big bait to try for something big. Within 2 minutes we were hooked up to a monster! Unfortunately the fight was short lived, we wound up breaking the 80 lb braided line! We re rigged and sent down another bait. Within 1 minute we were hooked up again! After about a 5 minute tug of war, Nick caught his first goliath grouper. It was a big one too, around 200 lbs! We took a quick picture and then released him to fight another day. We mixed up the strategy in the afternoon and caught 4 black groupers, keeping 2 of them, as well as a handful of yellowtail snapper. We then started our way back towards home, but while on the way we came across a hungry sailfish. The sail was chasing ballyhoo in 40′ of water, so we threw out a live ballyhoo and wound up catching and releasing a sailfish while working our way closer to home. We also caught a big barracuda and one more king mackerel. Yesterday we focused on sailfishing in Islamorada, and managed to catch and release 2 sailfish, as well as lost a couple. The biggest surprise though was a 32 lb wahoo which ate a kite bait. We didn’t have any wire leader, so we were really lucky to catch the fish on 40 lb. monofilament and a 6/0 circle hook. The day before we tried for sails too, and saw a couple but couldn’t get them to eat. We wound up catching a few snapper for dinner, a bunch of jacks, and then a couple barracuda. The next month should still be good sailfishing, so book your Islamorada January Fishing Trip soon!

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

bnmcharters@gmail.com

12/28/12 December Backcountry Islamorada Fishing Report

Another fabulous day fishing in islamorada!  The snooks were biting near flamingo as well as east cape.  Large shrimp hooked through the horn on 3/8 oz jigs were getting the good bites!  Caught half a dozen nice snook and lost a few nicer ones around a few islands early in the morning.  The pup drum were also biting pretty good in the deeper water as well, which is normal this time of year when the water temps drop below 70.  We had fun for a few hours in one spot not having to move!  Later in the day we hit the deeper big canal at east cape.  We worked our way through the major number of boats, caught one decent snook.  Then went around the bend towards the big open lake.  Here we found an area where the current was not running quite so hard, and set up for some fun islamorada backcountry fishing.  Lots of redfish as well as some juvenile snook, black drum, and sheepshead here.  We were fishing 1 oz weights with a 4/0 circle hook with just big chunks of shrimp, letting it sit on the bottom for the most part.  I love fishing islamorada in december.

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

Christmas day backcountry islamorada fishing report!

Merry xmas everybody hope your having wonderful holidays!  Took the old man out for his christmas present fishing today along with pal Ron Modra for some december islamorada fishing.  We fished the cape area mostly, hit a few gulf spots on the slack tide and caught a cobia and nice redfish on pinfish and shrimp, respectively.  When it started coming in worked are way through east cape.  Caught a few black drums and redfish, and pulled off a nice snook – dang!  Continued through lake inghram, saw a few big old’ crocodiles!  Florida keys fishing in december can be so unpredictable with wildlife!  Caught a handful more reds and trout in there, then back on to middle cape.  We worked some bucktails against some downed trees and forage, and caught 1 snook and then hooked another real nice one… alas we pulled the hook on him.  It was mid-day now, and tide was starting to slow.  We hit a few creeks though not a whole lot going on in any of them while everglades backcountry fishing.  So we decided to try a couple last spots in east cape which paid off.  3 snook out of one of them, 2 of them nice fish!  One on shrimp and the other on pinfish – one had us around a large pole that we luckily got around and off.  The other was deep in bushes though we coaxed him out as well.  I guess this makes up for the couple we pulled hooks on!  Also caught a few snappers and trout in there as well.  Then back home.  All in all a very fun way to spend christmas on the water!  Happy to have a good islamorada flats fishing report to give!

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