Capt. Rick Stanczyk

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!

Fishing Report Key Largo 12/30/12

Well we had another cold front here which put a damper on the key largo december fishing. Though we made it out today comfortably to east cape. We caught a snook, a few black drum, and sheepshead. The bites were few and far between however, water very mudded up and cold 65 degrees. We had the end of the falling tide. So we decided to run to some other areas, exposed banks and channel runoffs looking for redfish and trout. A good 2nd game plan for a key largo fishing charter. We found a handful of redfish in one area, caught about half a dozen and a few slot fish. Also a handful of mangrove snapper. Later we moved to another channel and lots of jacks, ladyfish, a few pompano, and trout. The water levels stayed low with the hard north/northeast wind even when tide started to come in flats were exposed. We caught 4 keeper trout which are still in season as it was never closed this year in our area. So we made the most of the difficult weather and conditions, bent the rod, and brought home dinner – a fine winter key largo fishing trip! The day before I had a half day and we caught 2 nice 10+ lb snook right off the bat. Caught about a dozen red and black drum as well, and finished off with plenty of ladyfish and jacks before heading home.

12/28/12 Great key largo snook fishing in the backcountry!

Key Largo snook fishing was great today on 12/28/12. That’s what my anglers wanted to that’s what we gave ’em! Started out around flamingo on the falling tide around some mangroves and such. Big shrimp on jigs was the ticket, bouncing them along the edges. Caught half a dozen or so, a few real nice fish likely 10-12 lbs. Also caught a dozen puppy drum redfish. December key largo fishing provides lots of variety at times! After this we ran towards east cape in the big canal. We caught one nice snook on one of the edges, and not much else – lots of boats in there with christmas week! We moved further inside and found a current eddy along one of the banks. The trick here was letting the shrimp sit on the bottom, moving it ever so slightly. Lots of redfish, a few black drum, and some more juvenile snook! Shrimp was all we needed today, tried some pinfish but not much luck on those! If your thinking of fishing next year, make the trip down here for some backcountry fishing key largo!

12/27/12 Key Largo Fishing Report December

Ahoy friends it is a busy week here fishing key largo and we’ve got some great fishing to report! We fished flamingo today and I had Stephen, Holly, and son Joe. We had a little bit more cool weather come in last night though it didn’t chill the water too much more which was good. This morning was fairly breezy out of the north/north east. No problem for my comfortable 20′ center console though! Rod bending action was on the agenda for this key largo fishing report and we had plenty of it. Started out fishing some channels for trout, jacks, snapper, ladyfish, and pompano. We caught plenty of fish though had to jump around a bit which you often do on a key largo fishing charter. We also caught a nice size bluefish which was a lot of fun for Joe! We later tried hitting a small creek around east cape, was barely able to make it in with the dead low water, but we did it! Unfortunately fishing wasn’t great there, the tide was just starting in but we only caught a couple small drum and some jacks. After this we had to meet some other boats that were part of our group deal at flamingo for lunch. This is a great option for kids and ladies, you can get off the boat, stretch your legs, use the facilities… whatever! We then headed back for a little more fishing before the day was done. December Key Largo Fishing stayed good through the afternoon, we caught several sheepshead, black drum, a few redfish, and one snook to end the day! That’s it for now guys hopefully we will see you out on the water soon!

Fishing Report Key Largo

Had some fun on christmas day today for our fishing report key largo! The take today was snook, redfish, black drum, seatrout, ladyfish, snapper, jack crevalle, and cobia! Such a variety of fish! We caught some fishing the gulf of mexico. Now this is normally a far far run from key largo fishing. However if you drive down south to Islamorada and depart there (only 20 minutes!) it is totally feasible! Some of the big redfish, cobia, and occasionally snook can be found on some structure out here as we did today. Inside the canal of east cape, we picked away at black drum and more snook, as well as some juvenile redfish and trout. Mostly casting shrimps and bouncing them slowly on the bottom. We did catch a few snook on artificial white/red jigs. 3/8oz wait and worked them quickly around mangrove edges and downed trees. So many different possibilities on a december key largo fishing trip! The rest of the week the waters will continue to warm, today they reached 67 degrees – much more pleasant for the backcountry fish! We should continue to have east/south east winds which are much warmer, so christmas week fishing should be very nice! Give me a call if your looking to go out!

December Backcountry Fishing Key Largo

Hello friends and thanks for tuning in for this december key largo fishing report! Today we hit flamingo which is a well known area for boats fishing out of Islamorada and Key Largo. Though Islamorada it can be a much quicker run especially if you want to work out west of there!!! We had a handful of juvenile reds and not much else so decided to move out towards the cape. Boats were out and about today, and many in spots I wanted to fish unfortunately, so I ended up running all the way to east cape. When we have these very cold waters from cold fronts, often times fish get pushed up into the creeks and canals that go up into the mainland in the deeper water seeking warmth. I was hoping for this on our key largo fishing charter. However fishing was not as great as I hoped though we picked at fish, catching 15 or so black drum, redfish, and sheepshead back there. I think many were still in shock from the temperature drop, as a few days ago the water was still 75 and we have not had any other cold water aside from a mini front around thanksgiving. A couple of the black drum and sheepshead were nice size though which made the day and got us a good dinner! All fish caught using live shrimp on jigs key largo backcountry fishing. This christmas week looks to be slammed, if you want to go fishing give me a call I have a couple afternoon slots open or can find great experience key largo fishing guide boats to send you with! Hope you have a merry christmas and happy new years, we will be out there catching some fish!

Christmas week key largo fishing forecast

Well christmas week fishing key largo is upon us… that busiest week of the year that is the kick start to our fishing season. Hooray! We had a little off time since thanksgiving, honestly about the slowest it’s been all year for this key largo fishing guide. But it was a welcome break, especially when in September and October your still fishing 20 days a month! I want to let you all know what to expect for the busy upcoming week here fishing key largo. It looks like we will be having warmer winds from the southeastern quadrant so it should be a comfortable mid-70s throughout. Wind speed doesn’t look too crazy… 10 mph average which should be fantastic! The water temperatures did cool this past weekend with the little cold front we had which is not a bad thing, it’s just what some of these fish need to spark to life! The spanish mackerel and company in the gulf love that, as well as the redfish in the backcountry, it may of well pushed some trout into some of the run-offs which we normally fish this time of year but have not done much of so yet due to the warm weather. On the offshore side, the sailfish should enjoy the little cool down, and breeziness is never a bad thing fishing for them. Key largo reef fishing as well will likely spark up. Remember guides such as myself operate bay boats which can get you on the patch reefs this time of year – a perfect option for a half day. Your often fishing within 15 minutes of leaving the dock, and this time of year a plethora of fish is yours for the taking! If your thinking about key largo backcountry fishing, give me a ring… I personally look to be all filled up from christmas to new years, but if I can’t take you I can definitely find an experience guide to put you on some fish! Well I hope you all have happy holidays and a happy new year, I’ll try to post an xmas week fishing report… but if I don’t get to it I’ll see you on the other side of 2013!

12/21/12 December Key Largo Fishing

Here’s right back at ya’ with some more key largo fishing report news on 12/21/12! We fished the bayside of channel 2 bridge with incoming water from the atlantic. The temperatures have dropped a bit which lit the spanish mackerel up pretty good. We caught more than I could count, plus plenty of jack crevalle, blue runner, mangrove snapper, and a black tip shark to top it off nicely! Later we ran back to east cape to check things out back there on the end of our december key largo fishing trip. Some fish were in the deeper canals and luckily the bugs kind of subsided – they had been terrible back there before the wind! Luckily in a comfortable bay boat, even with it blowing 25 mph you can still get out there and fish and be totally at peace. Not bouncing around, getting soaked, like you would in a little skiff. Anyways we caught plenty of key largo redfish and a few black drum, no snookies though but that’s ok lots of fun action to have anyhow. Glad to report the world didn’t end down here fishing key largo actually our winter time fishery is just getting started! Most fish caught today were caught on pilchards, we can go out front ocean side with these northerly breezes and still find bait which can make a big difference. Shrimp worked too so don’t worry and that will be more and more a bait of choice if the water temperatures drop to 70 or below. Until next time!