bull shark

March is a busy time here while fishing in Islamorada. We’ve been fishing just about every single day so far on the Bn’M and have had some great days and some decent days. March is a transitional month for sure. We get a little bit of everything, but not always a ton of one thing. We’ve had more cold weather in March than most of the winter and we have some more cold weather coming! The Shark Fishing was great our last trip offshore. We caught and released a big bull shark between 250 – 300 lbs, and then released an estimated 600 lb tiger shark! We also had some small blackfin tuna and a couple of decent size amberjack. The reef is where we have spent most of our trips however, and today we had the best bite of kingfish we have seen all year. We had our limit of fish up to 31 lbs. We also had a few snapper for dinner including a nice mutton snapper. There’s also been a bunch of barracuda around the reef, which makes for great action. There was some cobia action the past few days when the conditions were right too. We released some small fish on multiple occasions and had a few keepers up to 35 lbs. There has been a few mahi around, but not in great numbers yet. We had 4 one day but a couple of them were gaffers. We should start to see some more though as we roll into Spring while Islamorada fishing. Send me an email and I’ll get you our fishing!

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

bnmcharters@gmail.com

: islamorada cobia

: islamorada kingfish

: islamorada mutton snapper

: islamorada bull shark

: tiger shark head

: tiger shark islamorada

: islamorada yellowtail

The muddy water, dead grass, and general downturn from hurricane sandy cleared up dramatically today in the gulf of mexico during our november islamorada fishing trip on 11/4/12. Started out west near sprigger bank, caught some nice mangrove snappers and bluefish on pilchards. After a long while a few spanish mackerels showed up, we caught half a dozen nice ones and broke a few others off. This is a great option when backcountry fishing florida keys on a half day in the winter time, a few more weeks and another cold front and they should be going strong. I love gulf of mexico fishing and it’s a good time of year for cobia when the waters near low 70 degrees. That’s what we looked for later, ran further out to some deeper gulf wrecks. Saw some permit in islamorada on them when we pulled up but they bolted quick, anchored down and had one swim back up but he got spooked by the boat as he swam right into it. Had another lay up on the surface, fins out of the water. He had a chunk out of his back was likely almost a shark appetizer! He did not want to eat though did drop down to look at a big shrimp. So we put some islamorada cobia fishing baits out, some humming pinfish. Ended up getting 4 nice cobias, Carols caught one casthing a pilchard too on a trout rod/jig – this was a battle! Also got a small goliath grouper, and a much larger 100 lber on a chunk of mackerel. Then got a 250 lb bull shark as well on a jack cut in half, nice action on the big rods! The tide quit soon after this, and not much was going on with the incoming water, so we split. Ran the crab lines looking for triple tail, saw a handful, had one eat and spit, and then caught one. It was a great end to a november florida keys fishing trip. This should be a great week of fishing and as long as the winds stay down, we have good tide and the water has cleared up nicely out there… fish on!

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