January 2013 – Key Largo Fishing Report

1/29/13 Key largo backcountry fishing in january

The winds howled the last few days here in key largo florida fishing. Gusts up to 25 mph! We decided to take a run back to the cape area to get out of it. One nice thing about my comfortable 20′ seacraft is you can still make it to the cape and anywhere in the backcountry or bay and have a nice time. It doesn’t pound, slap, or spray you terribly – you can’t say that about many smaller skiffs and such. Once we got back around ‘the corner’ things were nice and we were in the lee of the wind. Our first stop for our january key largo fishing trip was in a creek that the water had been falling out of and left very low tide. The bugs had other plans and drove us right back out, so we worked the outside shorelines. This proved a good thing as we caught 3 big snook up to 13 lbs jigging shrimp on the sandbars. After about 10:00 or so we tried the creek again, now the sun had come up and wind swung around a bit, so the bugs were gone. We picked away at plenty of redfish, small black drum, and sheepshead. Redfish in key largo is a good bet in the winter time. We worked our way further in and continued doing the same, though we did get lucky and catch this huge ~20 lb black drum. We had to motor after him down the creek as he almost got around a bend on us!!! We moved further back and found some nice trout too. Around noon we headed back towards home and stopped in a channel for some rod bending action, which we had – plenty of trout, ladyfish, and jacks for 45 minutes before calling it a day. A great way to spend a 20mph windy day key largo fishing in january!!!

1/26/13 Backcountry fishing report Key Largo!

Welcome back to another backcountry key largo fishing report friends! Today I had regulars with me who love to fish. We ran back to the everglades and around the cape area. The lower water levels had puppy drum stacked up in some creek mouths and runoffs. We hit ’em good catching 30 or so. We also got some nice surprises… big black drum! We had 2 on, one we chased down though lost around a tree unfortunately. The other we made sure not to let that happen, a nice 20 lber! Key Largo black drum fishing is a blast! We continued picking away at fish on the low tide, then when it started rising we moved to another creek. We caught lots of snapper, jacks, ladyfish, some trout, sheepshead, and a few more bigger redfish. The boys wanted to try for a snook, so we hit several spots in search of one. They were not biting red hot, but after 4 or so moves, we finally got lucky and got the kids one – a nice 5 lber. Key Largo Fishing Charters can offer quite the array of game fish. We also caught a few more sheepshead and such, and then made our way back home from the key largo flats fishing.

1-22-13 January Key Largo Fishing Report

Everybody always asks what can I catch while deep sea fishing in Key Largo? I always explain to them that the time of year will dictate what we will catch, especially while Key Largo fishing in January. Today we went out for some bottom fishing in 400 – 600′ of water, also known as “deep dropping”. It is a lot of cranking, but the work is usually worth the reward, since these are some of the best eating fish we catch Key Largo offshore fishing. We caught our limit of blueline tilefish, snowy grouper, and yellowedge grouper. After that we came back to the reef and hunted for cobia, we didn’t have any success there, but we did drop on a wreck and catch a decent mutton snapper for dinner too. Yesterday we fished 2 trips on the Key Largo Fishing Charters on the Bn’M and in the morning we caught our limit of king mackerel and a couple barracudas, in the afternoon we started slow catching a nice yellowtail snapper on the bottom, a decent blackfin tuna a while after, and about 30 minutes before we had to go home we hooked our first sailfish. We released the fish after a 20 minute fight and put the baits back out for a few more minutes. Within 2 minutes we had another sailfish in the spread and he gobbled down a ballyhoo. After a 10 minute fight we released the fish and went headed home with 2 release flags flying. The winter fishing in Key Largo should continue to be good, so send us an email and make the 20 minute drive south, it will be worth your time!

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

mailto:bnmcharters@gmail.com

1/19/13 January Key Largo Fishing Report

Well friends we’ve had another cold front here key largo fishing in january. The fishing has been good though while not are standard winter time agenda in the backcountry, the usual cast of characters can be found. Fish are a lot more spread out as it’s been generally warm so they aren’t ‘holed up’ in their winter time hideouts. Today we started out around east cape and caught the last of the incoming tide. We got into a snook flurry, catching 8 or so plus a nice 24″ redfish. We also caught some more small redfish, black drum, and sheepshead, all on shrimp. Next on our key largo fishing charter agenda we hit some more corners and plugs in the various canals, alas catching was sporadic and a mix of snapper, jacks, ladyfish, and sheepshead – but still lots of rod bending fun! We then ran back towards flamingo and looked for some seatrout. Key largo trout fishing was good we had plenty of action though all cookie-cutter size trout of 14 inches or so, just barely undersized! Yesterday we got our limit of nice 15-19 inch trout in under an hour, today not the case but still much fun! We also got some pompano, more ladyfish, and jacks. Not a bad way to spend a beautiful day january fishing key largo. Look for fishing to continute to imporve if the weather stays warm we will be in for an early tarpon season, plus good action in the gulf if things stay calm!

1/12/13 Key Largo Backcountry Fishing Report

Winds were still howling today it’s been rough the past several days but that hasn’t kept us from getting out on the water and having a great time! Today on our key largo backcountry fishing trip we hit the edge of the gulf of mexico. Lots of spanish mackerel and mangrove snapper was the take! Shiny jigs tipped with shrimp did the trick, and of course a nice chum slick. I like to use 60# test mono for my leader, this holds up fairly well to the toothy mackerel, and is much easier to tie and handle then messing with wire. The snappers weren’t picky and ate it as well. We also did some key largo shark fishing and cut some fresh mackerel and put it on the bottom. Got a couple of nice blacktip sharks this way – even had a 300+ lb goliath grouper come up and try to eat the smaller of the sharks. We ended up hooking him however we didn’t have heavy enough equipment to pull him from the wreck on this january key largo fishing charter. After the tide quit, we ran into the backcountry and hit some channel run-offs on the end of the falling tide there. Had to look around a bit as the water has been really stirred up due to the 15-20mph east winds. We found a nice runoff and way up inside the water was looking much better. We caught several trout, one nice one of 22 inches and a few other keepers plus throwbacks. After they quite we looked around a bit more and eventually found another pack of them mixed in with lots of ladyfish. Great way to end the day fishing key largo in january!

1-10-13 Key Largo Deep Sea Fishing Report

Deep Sea Fishing in Key Largo has been great lately. On our Key Largo offshore fishing charters we have been fishing about 15 – 20 miles south, on the edge of the reef. We have been focusing on sailfish, since thats one of the most exciting winter time sport fish we have here. Today the wind was strong, 20+ knots out of the south east, and the seas were rough, 4 – 6′ with a few bigger swells coming through. It’s not the best wind for sailfish, but it didn’t stop them from biting. We released 2 out of 3 sailfish bites, and also caught a few mahi. We were fishing with Kites, using live goggle eyes and Ballyhoo for bait. Look us up when you want to go fishing in Key Largo!

1/8/2013 January Key Largo Fishing Report

Well it’s continued being a very warm winter here fishing key largo in january. The water temps are still ~75 degrees in the backcountry, so many of the fish are spread out. You can catch a few redfish, black drum, snook, and trout in their usual winter time holes, however it’s been much more of a pick -a fish here and there, rather than a bite every cast. However with the light winds we’ve had (until today of course) one good option has been gulf of mexico fishing. I had young Brendan here down with his dad and he had a blast with me, we caught plenty of spanish mackerel, mangrove snapper, and bluefish in the morning. All casting jigs tipped with shrimp, the action was hot and heavy. We later went further out in the gulf to hit a wreck and got a couple cobia off of it, including this nice one Brendan caught on a 10 lb outfit on his own cast! Great job! January key largo fishing offers an array of angling opportunities. We then ran the trap buoys looking for triple tail for dad and found a handful, however we only had a couple eat, one we pulled the hook on and one wrapped us on a trap and broke us off. Oh well, not everything goes perfect on a key largo fishing report! We then ran back into the everglades park and finished the day out with some nice trout, pompano, ladyfish, and jack crevalle bite.

1/4/13 Key Largo Gulf Fishing Report

Hello friends and Happy New Year from keylargofishingreport.com. It’s been great weather and great fishing in key largo as of late! Today we did a mixed bag trip, starting out around the flamingo area in the key largo backcountry. We caught several red drum, black drum, sheepshead on our first put stop. Fishing the incoming tide while there was still a slight push of water. On slack tide we hit an area known to hold some snook in it’s deeper moat. We did hook one and lost him boatside, but also caught several sheepshead and more black drum. The tide was falling now and we decided to do more variety fishing so we headed for some channel runoffs a little further west out towards the gulf. We found a nice muddy cut and caught several trout, ladyfish, a few pompano, and a small permit! Key largo trout fishing is excellent in areas such as this in the winter time. We then headed out to some gulf wrecks, and spotted several tripletail on the way. We caught some nice ones for dinner, which are excellent tablefare! Upon arrival to the wrecks we put out a few pinfish on knocker rigs. We caught several cobia, one nice fish of 15 lbs or so, great stuff for a key largo fishing report. Also another permit a little bigger this time, as well as a 100 lb goliath grouper! The tide this far out had already turned back in by now too at 1:00 in the afternoon. We decided to run back towards south of key largo, off islamorada, and caught plenty of spanish mackerel while chumming. A great end to a fabulous day of fishing key largo!