Beiträge von syxx

Winter time is still upon us in the Keys and fishing has been decent. Lately it's been a mixed bag on all of our winter time actvities as far as fishing goes. Shrimp is the bait of choice with water temperatures below 70 degrees and that means you don't have to waste time looking for bait which is always a plus. The everglades has been a good mix of red and black drum with some snook mixed in. The occasional sheepshead or trout also are making their precencse known. In the gulf the spanish mackerel bite has been on fire and that is a very consistent thing. Today we had to work at it but late morning we got into a decent bite of reds along the shallow shorelines, with a few snook and black drum mixed in. The higher water at the end of the incoming tide had fish happy laying in the sun with the calm weather and it was fun fishing. Further in the gulf the triple tail fishing has been very good too. Today we found lots of larger size ones (mostly keepers of 15+ inches). A fellow captain buddy of mine even bagged a 14 lber today! We lost one that was about 10 lbs by pulling the hook unfortunately. Out on the ocean side the patch reef fishing has also been very good. That is a great option for half day trips. Fellow captains today reported a good mix of snapper, porgy, and some nice hogfish out there. Shots at permit are not uncommon either this time of year on the nice days like today when it is cooler and the wind lays down. Look us up if you are interested in fishing in the Keys. Tarpon season is just around the corner and the spring time is booking up fast which is prime fishing!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
rick@seethefloridakeys.net
About Bud n' Mary's Marina in Islamorada Florida

We've been having a bit more cool weather in the later winter here in Islamorada, after a warmspell for several weeks around christmas and early january. This has led to much more of the traditional winter time fishing in our area. We've been having great success in the gulf and bays with spanish mackerel. This has been hot action most days, and even the slow days are still yielding a decent amount of fish. Mixed in are snapper, ladyfish, bluefish, and the occasional pompano. Big blacktip sharks are readily found too, fishing some of that fresh mackerel on the bottom with a big rod! Out on the patch reefs, the hogfish and porgies have been lots of fun and great tablefare. It's been a fantastic year with the hogfish numbers, more than I've ever remember hearing! We've had several days with our limit of them, and most guides I've talked to have had a day or two themselves catching high double digit numbers of them. In the everglades, the drum and snook fishing has been fair. The deeper creeks have had some black drum and the action is not always red hot, but some of them have been big lunkers of 20, 30, and even a 40 lber being caught that I heard of. You often have to be patient, and it is a lot more casting than catching, but the fish are quality and the reward is worth the effort. Snook have been fair and same thing, a good number of larger fish that are holed up for the winter on the oyster bars and creek mouths. Redfish and sheepshead have been mixed in as well. Shrimp is the bait of choice and that's worked well most days. We've had a handful of tripletail in the gulf too, with cobia mixed in on the wrecks. February is here now, and as soon as things warm up i'm sure the tarpon will be starting to show up. Spring time is already looking very busy though there are still some excellent guides that have days or evenings avialable to catch the big silver king.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
rick@seethefloridakeys.net
Islamorada Florida Fishing Charters with Capt. Rick Stanczyk

December has arrived and for the last month it's already been full 'winter mode' for us here in the Florida Keys. The great thing about living and fishing down here is there is great fishing all year round. The winter however is probably the most dramatic change we get as far as variety of things that we fish for. In the everglades with the colder water temperatures the fish often push out of the shallows and flats areas, and move into the deeper creeks, canals, channel run-offs, and island moats. Especially during a cold front with howling north winds and temperature drops, if you catch it right you can catch good fish almost every cast some days. We've already had 3 good cold fronts where the temperatures dropped to around 60 degrees, and now that the fish have adjusted the fishing really lit up afterwards. We've had several good days of catching redfish, snook, black drum, and sheepshead. Some nice size trout have shown up in some of the channel run-offs too, normal for the winter time. The last few times back during the right conditions, catches of up to 40 or more of these fish were the norm. When the water is cold shrimp is all you need for bait which is readily accessible at every local bait shop. When things warm up slightly the fishing is still good, we often are fishing live pilchards for snook and redfish, but the fish spread out a bit more often times. In the gulf the spanish mackerel have shown up in full force. We've been running a little past the everglades national park boundary and chumming big schools of spanish mackerel up. Most days produce double digit catches, and some days it has been so good that when you hook one fish, another one comes and tries to bite the knot! Big blacktip sharks are also feeding out in those areas, and on the falling tide it can be excellent fishing for these brutes. Further out cobia and triple tail are being found off structure such as wrecks and stone crab trap lines, and of course goliath grouper can be caught out there too. Last time out there looking for cobias, we had a pack of 10 or so pop up with fish as big as 40 lbs. A 300+ lb goliath grouper came up and tried to eat one that we hooked, luckily we were able to keep that from happening! On the ocean side patch reef fishing is very good too. We've had strong catches of porgy and hogfish - some of the best eating fish there is down here. My anglers regularly bring these fish to local resturants and have them prepared all different kinds of ways! This is a great half day option as many of these areas are only a 10 minute ride from the dock, and with the predominant north winds it is actually farily calm as the shallow ocean side is protected by the keys themselves with the wind coming from the bay/gulf side. There is also plenty of snapper, grouper, mackerel, jacks, and the occasional permit out there too. Tarpon fishing will be slow throughout the winter, though usually by February we start having better fishing for them. Of course if there is a string of warm days with southeaserly winds, tarpon can pop up any time of year. If your looking to go on the fishing trip of a lifetime, Islamorada should be on your list. You don't have to worry about any snow down here and Bud n' Mary's Marina has plenty of full time, professional guides waiting to put you on the fish!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
rick@seethefloridakeys.net

It's April and big tarpon are starting to show up now in Islamorada and throughout the Florida Keys. I've been fishing tarpon since the first week of February and we've had pretty good early season fishing but now the real big schools are showing up. Just a few days ago we had a 5 fish day with most fish in the 60-100 lb range. In February we had a 6 fish day with fish in the same size range. We've had a handful of 3 and 4 fish days, several 2 fish days, and a lot of 1 fish days - with other shots of course but tarpon are just tough fish to keep on the line some times! That's pretty good for this early in the season with over a 90% success rate of getting a fish to the boat. Mostly fishing fresh mullet live and dead as that is what the tarpon want this time of year. The fishing in both the backcountry everglades and locally around the islamorada bridges and channels have both had fish. Some mornings we go early or some evenings we stay till sunset and thats when the crabs are the bait of choice. Elsewhere we've been getting a handful of redfish, snook, drum, and trout in the backcountry. Plenty of snappers too if your looking for tablefare. The patch reefs on the ocean side still have good fishing too for porgy, hogfish, snapper, grouper, and a handful of mackerels. There are plenty of sharks around too, we got a nice size hammer head today plus several blacktips.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
rick@seethefloridakeys.net
Shark Fishing Charters with Capt. Rick Stanczyk