Sailfish

4-8-13 Offshore Fishing Islamorada

Fishing in Islamorada has been pretty good the first week of April. Not every day has been a home run, but we’ve had action every trip and there’s been some good quality fish around. Today we had a very slow start to the day, and finally boated our first fish at 11:30! It was a nice 50 lb amberjack, followed by a 30 lber. After that we looked for some mahi, and after 20 minutes came across a school, but they didn’t want to bite very well. We caught a couple, and but just one keeper. It was just enough to feed our couple though, so they were happy! We decided to head back to the reef edge after that and right when we got in a saw a pack of sailfish swimming down sea. We struggle with live bait this morning, but did have a few left over from the day before. We managed two bites from the pack and caught and released one of them. After that a fellow fisherman gave us a few left over baits that they had. Next we tried for some permit and released 3 in all, with a pair of them around 30 lbs! We weren’t done yet though. We also hooked a double header sailfish and released both of them too! It wound up being a great day of Islamorada Fishing! Yesterday we started out by catching some nice vermillion snapper, and then did some trolling. We caught a pair of mahi, and one was a nice 20 lb bull. On the way home we stopped at a spot and sure enough saw some permit. Within 2 minutes we were hooked up! After a 20 minute battle on 15 lb test, Long time Bud n’ Mary’s Marina customer Tom, landed and released his biggest permit ever! A big 31 lber! The days before that we released some sharks, including this nice hammerhead, we caught some king mackerel, barracuda, and plenty of snapper. The sails have been a little tough the past month, but you never know when it’s going to be your day! So when your ready to get out fishing shoot me an email!

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

bnmcharters@gmail.com

: bnm sailfish

: bnm permit

: vermillion snapper

: islamorada mahi

: bnm amberjack

: islamorada hammerhead

: islamorada barracuda

April 8, 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

2-18-13 offshore fishing islamorada

We’ve been out fishing Islamorada a bunch the past week, and we’ve caught a little bit of everything! We had our strongest cold front of the year pass through this past weekend while Fishing in Islamorada in February, and it definitely shook things up a little bit. Today started out pretty cold with a North Wind, and by the afternoon had warmed up quite a bit and the wind was strong out of the East. Anyhow we did two 1/2 day trips today, which you can get away with this time of year and usually still have some action on the reef. Dinner was the goal of the morning trip, and that’s exactly what we did. We worked hard at it, and moved a few times, but by the time the trip was over we had a handful of tasty yellowtail snapper, mangrove snapper, and porgy for the dinner table. We also released a nice black grouper due to the closure. The day before yesterday we also got out and had a great Islamorada Fishing Trip! We caught live bait first thing and then moved out to a spot just out side the reef and started slow trolling. We managed 2 sailfish releases, boxed 3 nice king mackerel to 20 lbs, and a 15 lb blackfin tuna within the first few hours. After that we looked for cobia for a couple hours inside the reef, but no luck. For the last hour we anchored down on the reef and caught 15 snappers including yellowtail and mangrove before heading home. We also released a fat black grouper this day too at the end of bottom fishing! The Day before that we went offshore fishing in Islamorada and caught some big fish! We started out at one of our “humps” (underwater sea mounatain), using tormenter vertical jigs. Now this is a major work out, dropping down 300 – 400′ with a 7 oz. jig on 80 lb braided line, and working it up aggressively, but when you hook up the bite and fight is incredible. We caught a couple almaco jacks and then finally hooked a big amberjack about 40 lbs. After that we sent down a big bait and hooked a monster amberjack! After a 15 minute tug of war we had a 75 lb amberjack in the boat! After we caught a couple big fish we decided to go for some tasty eating fish so we rigged up for some “deep dropping”. This is basically bottom fishing in 400′ to 600′ of water with chicken rigs. We managed to catch a handful of blueline tilefish, a snowy grouper, a mystic grouper, and a few rose porgies, which are all great eating fish! On the way home we put out the wahoo lure, and it had been about 6 months since we had a bite on it, so there we were running 14 knots with a lure out and it started screaming. The only bad news was the fight was short lived because after 10 seconds the fish shook free… oh well, we’ll have to get him next time. Pretty soon we’ll start heading offshore more, but we will still concentrate most of our time near the reef while February Fishing Islamorada.

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

bnmcharters@gmail.com

: islamorada amberjack

: islamorada sailfish

: islamorada black grouper

: islamorada blackfin

: amberjack vertical jig

February 19, 2013 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Fishing Reports Offshore 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

: islamorada sailfish

: islamorada red snapper

: islamorada hogfish

: islamorada crevalle jack

: islamorada amberjark

January 29, 2013 by Capt. Rick Stanczyk Fishing Reports Offshore Fishing Reports

1-11-13 Islamorada Reef Fishing in January

Islamorada Fishing has been very active the last couple of days! Today on our Deep Sea Florida Keys Fishing Charter we started out by catching some live ballyhoo. After we had our bait we threw a few out and caught a couple nice cero mackerel up to about 7 lbs. After that we went Kite fishing with the target species being sailfish. We had one bite a couple hours into the day and unfortuntely lost it. At about lunch time Dave asked if we could do something different to have some action at least, and I said we could definitely anchor down and probably catch some yellowtail snapper for dinner. As soon as we anchored we put a kite out for a mackerel and a sailfish piled on! We had the fish on for a few minutes and I thought we were going to catch it, but then we broke the fish off. It had been a long day up to that point, but the good news was that the yellowtails had made their way up to the back of the boat and were eating right behind the chum bag. Within an hour we caught our limit of 30 yellowtails, including one monster weighing 5 lbs! I told Dave we had an hour left to fish and we’d look for another sail. Well two minutes later I saw a frigate bird dive down and we raced over and threw out a couple ballyhoo. A pair of sailfish came up and we hooked a double header! Brad got a quick release on his first ever sail and then it was time to chase Dave’s down. After a 30 minute fight we had the beatiful sailfish next to the boat and took a few pics. We were using 15 lb test spinning tackle and he did a great job angling. Dave said it was one of the most exciting fish he ever caught and decided to get a release mount done by Gray’s Taxidermy. I’m sure the mount will look great on his wall and will last forever! Yesterday Reef Fishing in Islamorada we also caught and released 2 sailfish and caught a few mahi, which were a nice suprise since it’s January and not really season for them!