cobia

4-1-13 Deep Sea Fishing in Islamorada

I have been slammed the past couple of weeks so my Islamorada Fishing Report is a little late. I’ll start with today and give you a basic run down of what we’ve been catching overall the past couple of weeks while offshore fishing islamorada. Today we went “offshore” and caught and released a big tiger shark about 500 lbs, and also had a few tilefish, porgy, a snowy grouper, a couple almaco jacks, a few vermillion snapper, and a 55 lb amberjack. On the Reef lately the king mackerel bite has been pretty good, although there was a few slower days mixed in. Yesterday we had our limit of king mackerel to 24 lbs. We also had a pair of cobia at 24 and 40 lbs. The cobia bite has been fair lately, it’s definitely a hunting game and you have to put your time in looking, we don’t catch them every day, but it does pay off to look inside the reef, in the shallow waters for a little while every day. The snapper bite has been pretty good lately too, lots of nice lane snappers and quite a few yellowtail snapper most days. We also caught a nice 27 lb african pomano last week as well as a 275 lb goliath grouper which we released. We will start heading offshore further in search of mahi soon, as well as blackfin tuna, but most of our days have still be spent on the reef lately. I also saw some permit yesterday near a wreck, so we should start catching a few of those as they live on some of the wrecks in the Spring. Send me an email if you’re looking to do an islamorada fishing charter and I’ll try to help you out!

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

bnmcharters@gmail.com

April 1, 2013 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Uncategorized

3-12-13 Fishing in Islamorada

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

March 13, 2013 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Fishing Reports Offshore Fishing Reports

March Fishing in Islamorada

Well it’s been a busy couple of weeks here while fishing in Islamorada. We’ve had some red hot action as well as a few slower days, but still always manage to catch some fish and have a great time! Today we did a half day fishing charter in the morning and dinner was the first thing on mind. We anchored in two spots until we had a enough yellowtail snapper for dinner; we stopped at a dozen fish. After that I went to the tower and searched inside the reef for cobia, and sure enough after 30 minutes found a nice school. Most of the fish were undersize, so we released a handful, but right at the end we pulled a keeper in the boat. From there we went for some more action for the ladies and caught and released a few barracuda. Yesterday we sailfished all morning, but it was slow for us. About mid day we changed up our plan and wound up limiting out on lane snapper, caught a couple bonito and small amberjack, and then also caught a couple barracuda. That the great thing when Islamorada fishing, there’s always something to catch for fun! The day before that we managed 1 sailfish release, a limit of king mackerel, a 4′ silky shark release, and a few lane snapper and trigger fish for dinner. The couple days before that we caught some yellowtail snapper each trip as well as a few mutton snapper, including a couple nice fish in the 8 – 10 lb range. We also released a handful of black and gag grouper. We will start headed offshore to the humps here with more regularity soon, but for now we are still focusing on the edge of the reef. Let me know if you’d like to get out on a islamorada offshore fishing trip!

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

bnmcharters@gmail.com

: bnm sailfish

: islamorada reef fish

: islamorada barracuda

March 6, 2013 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Fishing Reports Offshore Fishing Reports

2/23/12 Looking for goliath grouper fishing islamorada in february!

I had Martin Williamson today from across the pond on 2/23/13. He fished with me a few years ago and we had an excellent day then catching tarpon, hammerhead shark, several other sharks, plus some other rod benders. Today Martin was after an islamorada goliath grouper fishing trip. Winds were a bit too high to get out into the gulf to hit the wrecks for them, so tried some other protected areas. First things in the morning with the low water we hit some channel run-offs to stock up on bait – lots of big ladyfish plus a mess of sea trout, jacks, and even some pompano, mackerel, and bluefish mixed in. This was going to be tough to leave! We put big rod out for fun and caught 4 blacktip sharks as well, saw a couple tarpon roll in the distance but not much activity from them. Tarpon fishihng in Islamorada in February is a definite possibility – but they can be very hit or miss! After we were loaded on ladies, we ventured to the next spot which is a hole that sometimes holds goliaths as well as other big fish. We anchored up, tide against the wind but got the boat positioned right. Had a big pack of cobias come right up under the boat… quickly reeled in our pinfish on top and hooked one! Martin dropped a bait to another though unfortunately we missed the hookset, but he caught the other one on the surface bait – good job! Not a huge fish but a first for him. A bit later both big rods went off with the ladyfish on the bottom, a double header! Both at first appeared to be large sawfish as they dogged us and didn’t stop despite the heavy pressure we both were putting on them. Sawfish in Islamorada have made a terrific comeback. I gave chase to Martin’s fish leaving the other in the rod holder going the opposite direction! Eventually the fish behind us kind of rolled over and I told Martin to switch to that one as it was acting more like a big grouper now, thumping quite a bit. Sure enough it was, hooray another first for Martin a 150 lb goliath grouper! We then focused on the other rod which was still bowed over. We leadered up the behemoth on the mono filament line… all of a sudden his bill broke the surface and slashed violently! We got him up one more time like that but this time he cut us off, but we were happy to get a look at the beast. My first sawfish of the year, and yet another first for Martin. After this we fished for a bit under an hour back at the hole, alas not much other action. Decided to hit a high-tide spot for some reds on the way home which worked out nicely. Martin caught about 10 or so mostly nice slot size redfish, something else he hadn’t caught yet! A fine end to a fabulous day february fishing the florida keys. This was another special trip for Martin and a great birthday present for himself!

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

: goliath grouper islamorada

: everglades cobia

February 23, 2013 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Backcountry Fishing Reports Fishing Reports

2-22-13 Offshore Fishing Islamorada

There’s been some good action the past few days while offshore fishing islamorada. Today We had a father and daughter out for a full of islamorada fishing action! We started out like we do every day by rounding up some live bait. From there we went to a wreck just outside the reef, and within an hour caught our limit of king mackerel to about 10 lbs. After that we put some live ballyhoo out and within 20 minutes hooked a pair of decent blackfin tuna in the 12 – 15 lb range, and managed to land one of them. The next target was a big shark. It was a little rough today but we took our time and went out to another spot I like in about 300′ of water. We sent down a slab of bonito and within 10 minutes hooked the shark we were looking for! Some days things don’t go your way though and after about a minute of fighting the shark we broke the line! Anyhow we didn’t let it ruin the rest of our day. We caught a couple barracuda after that and then came back towards the reef. I found a handful of mahi under a bird and we managed to catch 1 and missed another, the other fish didn’t bite. The last couple hours we focused on sailfish, and we had 2 shots, hooking one, but after about a minute battle the sailfish started jumping all over and our hook came flying out. Yesterday though while february fishing in Islamorada we had a great morning trip. We caught a couple king mackerel to start the day and then anchored down for some bottom fishing for a couple hours. We managed our limit of 20 snappers including mangroves and yellowtail. We pulled anchor and start running towards home, but I had just climbed up to the tuna tower and way out to the side I noticed a large cobia swimming on top! We turned towards him and there was a nice school of cobia following a big stingray. We hooked 3 fish, 2 were undersize and then we fought a 57 lb lunker for 3o minutes before sinking the gaffs into the fish. The day before we had a couple amberjack to 30 lbs, a couple mutton and yellowtail snapper, a sandbar shark we released, a few king mackerel, and also released a big black grouper (the season re opens for shallow water grouper on May 1st). Book your Islamorada Fishing Charter today!

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

bnmcharters@gmail.com