Islamorada Fishing

4-18-13 Offshore and Reef Fishing Report in Islamorada

It’s been a busy season here while Fishing in Islamorada this year. I’ve been getting out 5 – 6 days a week lately and have had some good fishing. My first trip out for mahi was great. We fished a few days ago and hit a couple big schools of fish and kept 35 fish. None were huge but they were keepers and we didn’t have to measure any, we gaffed a few in the 5 to 7 lb range. We also caught a handful of tile fish. The shark fishing in Islamorada has been red hot. I’ve caught and released 6 tiger sharks, 1 hammerhead, and 1 brown shark my last three trips combined. On the Reef there continues to be some permit around, but they have been a little tricky my last few trips. We been catching a variety of snapper including vermillion, lane, and yellowtail lately. There’s also been some barracuda for action. The amberjack bite is in full swing and if you want a back breaking fight and something that pulls hard you need to catch one of these bad boys! They have been from 25 – 50 lbs. The mahi bite will hopefully become consistent soon, since April is still a little inconsistent as a rule. If you come down for some April islamorada fishing be ready to do a little bit of everything, because Spring time fishing means a little bit of a lot of fish usually. The conditions change day to day, and you should go for whats biting the best to have the most enjoyable islamorada offshore charter possible! Email me and I’d be happy to get you out fishing aboard the Bn’M.

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

bnmcharters@gmail.com

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

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

 

1-22-13 Islamorada Offshore Fishing Report for January

The Offshore Islamorada Fishing Charters have been exciting the last few days here. We catch a wide variety of fish here while fishing in Islamorada, and use quite a few different methods while doing it. Today we went out for some “deep dropping”, where we bottom fish anywhere from 400 – 600′ using multiple hook rigs. The action started right away and by noon we limited out on blueline tilefish, snowy grouper, and yellowedge grouper. These are the only grouper we can keep down here while deep sea fishing in Islamorada right now since the shallow water groupers are closed for harvest until May 1st. We then headed in for a little bit of January Reef Fishing in Islamorada and caught a keeper mutton snapper and a few other fish. Yesterday we fished 2 trips and in the morning we caught our limit of kingfish and a couple of barracuda. In the Afternoon they guys really wanted sailfish, and I explained that the Florida Keys Sailfishing had been a little tough the last few days, but they said they wanted to take the chance and knew there was a possibility we wouldn’t get any bites. After a few slow hours we finally caught a tuna and a decent snapper, and then finally got a bite from a sailfish. We released the Islamorada Sailfish after a 30 minute acrobatic fight and put the baits back out for a few more minutes. It wasn’t 2 minutes later till we hooked another sailfish and after a 10 minute fight we released our 2nd sailfish of the trip. Get on down here for some Islamorada Fishing Charters soon!

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

bnmcharters@gmail.com

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