Category: Fishing Reports

Key Largo February Backcountry Fishing is officially beginning now.  For the last month we’ve had traditional winter time fishing going on for the most part.  The weather has been chilly though we haven’t had much severe cold, only a handful of nights in the 50s.  Spanish mackerel have been the name of the game if you want consistent action.  The bite in the near gulf has been hot most days, and even the slower days are still yielding a dozen fish in an hour or so of fishing.  We’ve had most of our action just fishing shrimp on jig heads, blind casting in chum slicks.  Now further back near the mainland in the everglades of key largo we’ve had action with drum and snook.  This hasn’t been red hot and has been a little tougher overall this year than most winters.  Though there have been some nice size fish back there especially with the black drum and snook.  You don’t always have constant drag pulling action, but can have shots at a handful of nice fish and a few trophy ones at that.  The other day we had a couple nice snook over 10 lbs, and a little over a week ago we got a black drum about 25 lbs!  This too is mostly on shrimp, with the water temperatures below 70 most days that is the bait of choice.  This is nice as you don’t have to worry about spending time catching and hunting for other baitfish.  The patch reefs have been a good bet too for catching tablefare and keeping the rods bent.  We were able to get our limit of hogfish this saturday, 10 keepers which is fantastic fishing in just a half day trip.  Plenty of porgy as well as a mix of snapper and grouper are common too.  A key largo reef fishing trip especially on the closer in ‘patch reefs’ is productive all the way through the spring.  Coming up we are getting very close to prime season for tarpon fishing key largo.  Once the water temperatures stabilize at 75 degrees or so I will be doing that on the majority of my charters, along with other things too in the early spring.  If your looking to get out on the water for a big silver king of a lifetime, or any other fish, give me a call.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903

It’s been extremely warm here and that’s lead to some ‘spring time style’ fishing in key largo in january.  We’ve been putting the big rods out for things like sharks, sawfish, tarpon, and cobia.  The last several trips we landed big tarpon, yesterday we boated 2.  I don’t think it will last forever as we have another cold front bearing down on us tomorrow night.  But it’s been fun for the last couple weeks.  Other than that, I’ve been fishing the gulf of mexico a lot.  With the high southeasterly winds the backcountry has been fairly mudded up and with the higher water temps, most the usual winter time areas are much more of a pick of fish rather than finding good numbers where you can sit and mash ’em. Though a few days a couple weeks ago we did boat a few good snook and reds the couple days we fished back there. Though we’ve been hanging the chum bag in the gulf much more lately and getting lots of spanish mackerel, big ladyfish, snapper, trout, jacks, and occasional pompano.  Also on the ocean side on the calmer days the patch reefs have still been alive with porgy, hogfish, snapper, and grouper.  After the next front I’m sure the backcountry redfish, black drum, snook, and sheepshead fishing should get a little more consistent.  The wind should swing north and drop the water temperature a bit.  Though February is right around the corner and that is typically when I start tarpon fishing a lot, the last couple years it’s been worth a try most days, and on the right day it can be dang good fishing!  Gimme a call and let’s get you out in the water for a key largo fishing charter.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

Well it’s down right chilly here in Key Largo the last few days, but fishing has been red hot!  Today we had a gorgeous day as a front rolled through a few days ago but the wind laid down still today.  It was perfect weather to hit the gulf.  We had the spanish mackerels chummed up somethin’ fierce.  After about a half hour, any jig that hit the water had one of these little speedsters on the end.  It was great fun and we probably landed close to 40 fish by 10:00 AM.  After that we switched gears and decided to check out some spots in the ‘glades, everglades that is.  We ran to flamingo and fished some good cool weather spots with big live shrimp.  Pretty soon it was game on again, we caught about 20 snook in an hour and a handful of redfish and sheepshead too.  The snook were not giants but we did get a couple slot size fish in the 30″ range.  The water back there was in the high 60’s, brrr!  Now it was a little after noon time and we went looking for more redfish on the bottom of the tide.  Unfortunately it was not happening for us we hit a few channel run-offs and sandy potholes where the drum often school up in the winter when it’s cold, but just not much doing.  We did bend the rod with a few jacks and snappers there though.  But it didn’t matter we had a stellar day anyways .  The rest of december is getting booked up quick, and xmas week is right around the corner and that traditionally kicks off our season!  January is great fishing here in Key Largo too so if your thinking of getting out of the snow, I’ll betcha it’s warmer here and better fishing then where you are sitting!  Gimme a call lets get you out on the water.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

November is moving right along and the backcountry fishing in Key Largo has been pretty great.  We’ve had our first real ‘cold front’ of the year, with the temperature dipping into the high 50s for a night in Key Largo.  This has helped some of the backcountry fishing tremendously.  Our winter time cast of characters include snook, redfish, black drum, sheepshead, trout, spanish mackerel, and more.  Many of these fish can be caught year round, but the winter time is better as they prefer the cooler water temperatures.  Many seem to be pushed down from further north as it gets colder up there.  Snook have been around the mangrove islands, shorelines, and creek mouths feed voraciously on pilchards and shrimp when water temperatures have dipped.  I’ve been catching more snook than anything back there and they are a whole lot of fun, my last several trips we landed double digits in numbers.  The redfish, black drum, and sheepshead have been found in the channel runoffs on low tides, and are starting to show up in the deeper creeks and canals where we find them in the winter.  We had one very good day landing over 20 reds, the rest it has been a handful.  Though we will get more redfish and black drum as it continues to cool off and less snook.  I have not done much with spanish mackerel yet in the gulf, though I have had a few reports of good fishing out there.  As it continues to cool we will see more and more of that.  We did see a big school of cobia on a wreck out there one day last week, however the jack crevelles were so thick you could hardly get a bait to them.  However a boat that was fishing the same trip with me ended up getting a couple.  The patch reefs have been on fire lately.  The last several trips out there yielded plenty of porgies, snappers, some small groupers, and of course the delectable hogfish.  If you want to book a key largo fishing trip, now is a great time!  Most of my November is booked up and I am going out of town for Thanksgiving for a week, but early December is fairly wide open.  Let’s get out for your key largo fishing charter in December!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

There’s been some nice fish around the past month here in Islamorada, just 20 minutes south of Key Largo Fishing! I’ve been doing quite a bit of swordfishing, and it’s been as good the past few weeks as I’ve seen in years. One trip alone produced 5 fish, we had a trip with 4, a couple with 3, a few with 2, and some with 1. I know the streak will end eventually, but we’ve got them 13 trips in a row! The mahi are starting to thin out, but there’s still a handful around. The blackfin tuna have been pretty consistent most trips, although a couple trips they were a little more difficult. On the reef the snapper bite has been good and the king mackerel are starting to show up. The sailfish are just starting to move in as well, with the next few months being prime time! Send me an email when your ready for your next  deep sea fishing charter while in Key Largo, and make the short drive to us at Bud n’ Mary’s Marina! bnmcharters@gmail.com

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

October is here and finally we are getting some cool weather, and business is picking up as well.  The rest of October is fairly busy but I do have a few days open, and November is filling in quick so get ahold of me if you want to go fish soon!  Today the key largo backcountry fishing was fantastic.  We loaded up with live pilchards, which have been readily available around many of the local shorelines and islands, and headed into the everglades.  We had high water and I fished many shoreline areas and some new stuff as well.  The water was gorgeous, and the fish were happy.  We caught over a dozen redfish, and a dozen snook as well, with some nice jacks mixed in and a juvenile goliath grouper.  Great day!  Lately on half days the snapper fishing locally has been a good bet, with some nice size snappers around many islands and in the gulf grass beds.  We had a good tarpon trip a few days ago too before we had the cool weather, landing 2 tarpon and jumping another 2 off.  Also good action with large blacktip sharks that day as well.  As october continues the fishing should get better and better as things cool down a bit.  Look for the everglades to come alive with snook, drum, trout, and more.  Tarpon fishing will slow down though we can still get some large pushes of bait (the fall bait run) which they can start going nuts during before it gets too cold.  Spanish mackerel fishing will be in full swing before you know it, with a mix of bluefish, pompano, snapper, and more with them as well.  And the gulf can have good cobia fishing this time of year too with tripletails on the stone crab pots.  Drop me a line if you want to get out fishing in october in key largo!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

It’s mid september and things are starting to slightly cool off a bit here in Key Largo Florida Keys.  The key largo backcountry fishing has been steady and should get better as the water temperatures lower and we get some big pushes of baitfish down the coast.  As we get into October following those baitfish are huge schools of everything – tarpon, snook, redfish, trout, and more!  For part of October you may even witness the fall bait run when there are tens of thousands of baitfish that get pounded by hungry tarpon and other fish.  As you can tell, I get very excited about fishing this time of year and really look forward to it.  If your in the area lets set something up it’s not a very busy time so you often have the area to yourselves and the fishing ca be fantastic!  Lately it’s been typical off season, I’ve only been fishing a couple charters a week and fun fishing myself a bit.  I was out of town a couple weeks from mid august till early september.  The last couple weeks fishing has been decent for this time of year.  Still some tarpon around in the backcountry with some big sharks october fishing in key largo.  We landed a 70 lb tarpon last saturday and had some big goliath groupers as well off some wrecks and shorelines structure.  There were some snook too that were pulling major drag.  Plenty of white bait (pilchards) are starting to show up around many of the usual spots (shorelines, canals, moats).  These guys will grow in size over the next couple months and we catch them for bait all thru the fall and winter.  Snook love ’em!  A few days we were catching dinner which turned out to be very nice size mangrove snapper!  We got some nice size trout as well mixed in.  They were eating large chunks of bait, and many were in the 2 to 3 lb range which is great for the inshore areas.  I was sight fishing for fun the other day too with fellow Capt. Bill and we saw probably 2 dozen snook and redfish, landing a couple nice reds but the snook were not interested in our live shrimp presentation.  As we get into October, look for the spanish mackerel bite to pick up and mixed in with them are plenty of large bluefish, ladyfish, snapper, trout, and of course big blacktip sharks!  That is great action and can catch dinner too, plus further out there are often triple tail and cobia in the gulf.  Drop me a line and lets go fishing if your down here this time of year, key largo inshore fishing is great!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
305-747-6903
rick@keylargofishingreport.com

It’s august here in key largo florida and we are in the midst of summer time.  I’ve been doing a lot of tarpon fishing still, mostly deep in the everglades.  It’s a bit of a jog usually an hour or so, but the fishing is usually well worth it.  While in later july the fishing had gotten a bit more hit and miss, it is still very possible to have great tarpon fishing.  Today we landed 5 nice tarpon in the 30 to 60 lb range.  Yesterday we landed 4.  Days before that were a bit more hit or miss but I finally got back dialed in on the fish.  We had a few slow mornings with not much action from either tarpon nor shark, but managed to put some catches of other things together in the afternoons.  The winds the last couple days got back in the east/northeast which helped the fishing tremendously, whereas previously we had several days of muggy, hot, southwest wind which is not good for much here.  Snook fishing has still been productive too, we were lucky and got 7 big snook up to fifteen pounds in one of my tarpon spots.  Smaller snook have been feasting on the pilchards and those baits have been readily chummed on the edge of the gulf of mexico.  While doing that we are often catching trout and snappers, so it makes the bait catching experience a little more fun for the customers.  As we get deeper in august, fishing can still be really good but can also get tough.  The heat of summer sets in and fish respond differently.  Though one thing with me you can always bet I’ll work as hard as I can, trying to catch whatever bait we need, running wherever we need to go, to put my anglers on the fish of a lifetime!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk