5-19-13 Offshore Fishing in the Florida Keys

We've had great weather here the past few days on our florida keys offshore fishing charters. There's been some incredible catches of mahi offshore, and some action packed reef fishing as well. The Islamorada mahi fishing in May was decent the last two days, but really good for most of the boats a few days back. It takes patience to find the fish, and then to stay in the area as you wait and look for more opportunities. Trolling has been producing some of the fish, and birds and debris have been the ticket to the rest. There was quite a few decent size fish in the 12 - 25 lb range. The Relentless had a great catch today with 30 fish, including 6 fish from 10 - 18 lbs and the rest were nice sized schoolies (3-5 lbs). On the Bn'M we had a dozen mahi from 3 - 10 lbs, and then came back to the reef and caught some lane snappers for dinner and released some barracuda and crevalle jacks for action. The Strictly Business did a 1/2 day reef fishing trip today and had a nice catch of yellowtail snapper and then a keeper black grouper and a keeper gag grouper. Yesterday the Kalex and 9 nice size mahi from 12 - 25 lbs, The Bn'M had 10 from 12 - 20 lbs and a 15 lb wahoo, The Relentless had 8 nice fish, including a 35 lb bull and a wahoo, The Reel McCoy had some schoolies and a few big fish, including a moster 46 lb bull! The Catch 22 had 7 decent fish and a couple schoolies, and the Strictly Business had 6 nice fish and a handful of schoolies. The Fearless stayed on the reef and had 25 yellowtail snapper and then fished a couple wrecks and caught some hard fighting amberjacks up to 40 lbs. Now a few days ago was one of the best days of mahi fishing we have seen in a while. The Catch 22 led the way with 18 nice from 12 - 30 lbs, The Gon Fishin V had a dozen from 12 - 20 lbs, The Relentless had a good catch too including another big Bull weighing in at 46 lbs! The funny thing was on the Bn'M we started out looking for mahi, and wound up losing a few and then gave up and headed back to the reef. Looking back I wish we had a little more patience and stuck it out, but we wound up having a great afternoon on the reef catching 25 yellowtail snapper and then 20 nice vermillion snapper. The day before that we did some daytime swordfishing on the Bn'M II and had a few strikes, hooking two fish, but unfortunately pulled the hooks on both of them. The bite seems to be picking up and I think the next few months we will see some nice broadbills. Capt. Andrew ran the Bn'M on the 16th and caught and released a nice blue marlin, which is always a nice surprise since we don't catch many of them, but you always have a shot at a billfish when you're trolling along! The weather this coming week looks great as well, so I would expect the boats to still put together some nice catches of mahi (more than likely we will start seeing a lot more schoolies soon), with a few of the nicer fish mixed in, and there should still be the occasional wahoo, blackfin tuna, and the reef should provide plenty of snapper. Call and book your next islamorada fishing trip at Bud N' Mary's Marina soon! 305- 664-2461

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

5/18/13 Florida Keys Backcountry Fishing in May

Well been very busy and not much time to give updates for the islamorada may fishing report.  The weather has been nice and fishing has been pretty good overall.  The may florida keys tarpon fishing has slowed down a little bit the last several days as much of the mullet have thinned out and it was also a very very busy weekend with lots of boats on the water.  It's been tough to find live bait plus the fish are just not as active though fish are definitely still being caught we've still been catching at least one most every trip, today we lost a fish after a few minutes but got them the last couple nights as well as some a few days ago fishing locally.  The gulf has had some decent fishing we made our way out their yesterday and found lots of big bull sharks, some goliath groupers, a few cobias, and saw some permit though they were tough to get to eat.  Capt. Mike Bassett had good luck fishing the deeper everglades and had a good catch of redfish and snook.  One day they had 11 snook with Bob and son John.  There has also been some nice size mangrove snappers around Capt. Dave Sisung has had some very nice catches of great tablefare as of late.  The tarpon fishing with crabs should pick up and hopefully crabs will become more available as this is the time of year they start feeding more on them.  Early mornings and later evenings can be a good bet for big tarpon in Islamorada!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

5-15-13 Islamorada Fishing in Mid May

There's been some great catches of fish the past few days while fishing in Islamorada in Mid May. Almost all of the boats have been having decent catches, and then each day there has been a couple spectacular ones mixed in. There's been some mahi at a reasonable distance the last few days, and today the pretty work caught about 10 mahi in the morning, and then decided to hit the reef for a couple hours after that. We can't always do that, but early in the season (April and May), sometimes allows us too if the mahi aren't at extreme distances, (further out in the gulf stream). Anyhow, on the reef they caught a handful of yellowtail snapper and then a pair of black grouper, including a big 28 lber! On the Bn'M we stayed on the reef since the winds were blowing and we didn't want to get too beat up, and we managed to catch our limit of 30 yelllowtail snappers, a 10 lb black grouper, and then went out a few miles and caught a handful of nice vermillion snapper. Before it was over though we found some frigate birds and knocked off 4 nice mahis, including this beatiful 35 lb bull. The Fearless had around 15 mahi and then stopped on the way home and caught a handful of yellowtail snapper to mix things up, and the Reel McCoy had a handful of mahi today and released a sailfish, and they were all nicer fish. Some of the boats found big schoolies of smaller fish, "Schoolies", while others founds less numbers, but bigger size. Yesterday the Reel McCoy had a great catch of Mahi, including 11 fish from 12 - 35 lbs, and then some schoolies to go along with them. The Relentless had a 40 lb bull and 7 or 8 other fish and the Pretty work had a handful of mahi, all nice size up to 20 lbs. The Catch 22 caught around 20 mahi, schoolies, and then on the way home hooked a mystery fish. It was rough weather, and high seas, but the angler toughed it out and caught an unusual catch for Islamorada! It was a 70 lb yellowfin tuna! It's the first one we've seen caught here in a few years, but it goes to show you that you never know what you will catch while Islamorada Fishing! Yesterday the Gold Digger also had a limit of yellowtail snapper and a keeper black and gag grouper on a morning 1/2 day charter. The Gon Fishin had 20 mahi as well, including a few gaffers in the 10 - 15 lb range. I'd expect to see some more mahi the next few days, as well as grouper and snapper. The sailfish have really thinned out, but there's always a chance at one! There has been a few permit around lately as well, but they haven't been swarming. Here's a nice one caught and released aboard the Relentless a few days ago!

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

5-12-13 Islamorada Fishing Report

It's been a busy few days here at Bud n' Mary's Marina in Islamorada, FL. Most of the florida keys offshore charter boats have been getting out on full day trips, and a few on 1/2 day fishing trips. Today the fishing was decent overall. A couple boats had really nice catches of fish, including the Pretty work with 25 mahi, 20 which were schoolies and then 5 nicer ones in the 15 - 25 lb range, the Gon Fishin V had 25 schoolies, as well as the Man O War which did a 1/2 day morning reef trip and had 40 yellowtail snapper, a big mutton snapper, a nice black grouper, and then was suprised by 3 decent mahi (most of the mahi are further offshore). Most of the other boats had anywhere from 5 to 20 mahi, mostly schoolies (3-5 lbs), but there was a couple other 20 lb fish hanging up. The other boats that stayed on the reef this morning, including the Bn'M with 30 yellowtails, and the Redfish with 20 yellowtails and a few cero mackerel. Yesterday the mahi fishing was definitely a little better for most of the boats. Some boats got on them real early and had great catches, including the Reel McCoy with fish up to 30 lbs, and the Catch 22 with fish up to 25 lbs. Aboard the Bn'M we started off slow, not finding anything for the first few hours, but we were patient and didn't give up, and by the end of the day we caught about 10 mahi, including 4 decent fish up to 20 lbs. The Gold Digger caught a couple decent mahi in the 15 lb range this morning, as well as a handful of schoolies, but when the mahi bite got slow they decided to come fish the reef for a couple hours and caught 20 yellowtail snapper. That's the nice thing about a full day fishing charter, you have time for more options when it comes to the fishing! Tomorrow looks like a beautiful day to go fishing in Islamorada, and the few days after that look a little windy, but I'm sure most of the boats will still be getting out. Don't forget to tun into the new reality show on the Weather Channel, Reel Rivals, at 9 p.m. on Tuesday!

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

5/9/13 May Backcountry Fishing Report in Islamorada

Well the backcountry islamorada fishing in may has been pretty productive with shots at all kinds of different fish.  Capt. Jim Willcox had some good fishing in the gulf several days ago with a variety of fish.  They got into cobia, permit, and tripletail, among other things.  The tripletail fishing should be good until the stone crab traps are pulled soon, then they won't have much to hang on for structure.  Calm days this time of year with the falling tide can yield good fishing for permit on the wrecks.  May inshore fishing islamorada has still been yielding a good catch of tarpon.  Capt. Rick Stanczyk had 4 out of 6 big tarpon in the backcountry yesterday, plus some nice redfish, a snook, a permit, sharks, and a few other things.  Capt. Bill Bassett caught 3 tarpon yesterday plus several hammerhead sharks.  Capt. Ben Ekblom caught multiple tarpon as well, plus this fish that was estimated over 200 lbs!  Today fishing was a little tougher with a breezy north chilly wind in the morning.  That didn't stop Capt. Skip Nielsen who ran deeper into the glades and got 4 tarpon and 4 nice snook.  This evening I saw Capt. Bill Bassett fighting a tarpon on our way home from catching bait too.  Earlier in the day he reported catching a nice permit sight fishing the local flats of islamorada.  The tarpon in islamorada will start feeding more and more on crabs as the mullet start to thin out in the next few weeks, early mornings and later evenings can be a very productive time drifting with crabs for tarpon!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk