hogfish

4/6/13 Islamorada hogfish fishing on the patch reefs!

Well today we had a breezy north 15 mph wind in Islamorada, Florida Keys. This seemed to have slowed the tarpon down for a day or so hopefully tomorrow it will pick back up. I had anglers from the other day that had already caught some big tarpon in islamorada so we decided to mix it up and do something different. We fished the patch reefs which are often good when it is cold and with northerly winds as it stays calmer out there. We hit some rocks fishing jigs and shrimp. The islamorada hogfish fishing was good we caught about half a dozen fish off one spot, with 5 of them being keepers! We also caught some porgies, yellowtails, mangrove snappers, and a couple small groupers. Though lots of fun on light tackle regardless with the groupers! One trick to the florida keys hogfish fishing is chumming with bits of shrimp, this really can get them going and to find you out there. Tomorrow it’s back to tarpon fishing in the morning, hopefully the warmer incoming tide early in the morning will have the fish happier – we shall see!

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

April hogfish islamorada

April 7, 2013 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Backcountry Fishing Reports Fishing Reports

3/29/13 Islamorada backcountry fishing report

We’ve been extremely busy here in Islamorada, Florida Keys. One of the busiest spring times I can remember! Unfortunately this last week we had another late cold front dropping the temperatures extremely low. Some parts of the everglades national park the water was in the high 50s, and even florida bay was in the low 60s – not ideal for this time of year or any time! The hot ticket for my anglers has been fishing the islamorada patch reefs. The last several days we’ve done that and the fishing has been pretty good. Lots of good eating fish too! We’ve caught some nice mangrove snappers, porgies, and hogfish which are all delicious! There has also been a mix of smaller yellowtails, mutton snappers, various groupers, blue runners, grunts, chubs, and even a few small sharks. A few days ago one of my anglers was after sharks, but with the water temperatures being what they were I did not think much of our chances. However we fished near the ocean side with the incoming tide from the atlantic and that kept things quite a bit warmer than in the bayside. We didn’t catch anything we consider ‘trophies’ here, but he was thrilled to catch a few very large nurse sharks, big sting rays, and large bonnet head sharks. The april tarpon fishing in islamorada should pick up too. The last several nights have obviously been pretty slow with the cold water. We saw plenty of fish last night, though never could get one to eat. I fished 3 different spots and all held fish that we could see rolling consistently. The cold front has since passed and the waters should have a chance to warm up, once they reach ~70 again everything should get better slowly. If your thinking of doing a backcountry islamorada fishing charter give me a call!

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

: march mangrove snapper

: islamorada hogfish

March 29, 2013 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Backcountry Fishing Reports 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