Tag: sailfish

December 3, 2014 Key Largo Reef Fishing Report

The winter time fishing in Key Largo has been action packed lately. I fish just twenty minutes south of Key Largo, and we have been catching both pelagic species and bottom dwellers. A few of my charters wanted to focus on big fish, so we spent much of the day kite fishing with live bait. Each day we put in atleast a couple hours doing that we had shots at sailfish, releasing them on 3 of my last 4 trips. Now winter time is definitely not prime time for mahi mahi, but I always say you never know what you’re going to catch off the Florida Keys! One day we had 2 young kids and their parents, and they caught a double digit number of mahi, and the day before we caught half a dozen. There’s been a couple blackfin tuna and king mackerel around the reef and wrecks too. While bottom fishing on the reef we’ve been catching plenty of fish for a few dinners while you’re on vacation too. We’ve had all sorts of snapper, including yellowtail, mangrove, and mutton. As well as a few red and black grouper. Grouper season closes on January 1st, so make sure to get out there this December and catch a few for dinner! Let me know if you’d like to book a private fishing charter on my boat the Bn’M II, which is at Bud n’ Mary’s at mile marker 79.8. Send me an email to bnmcharters@gmail.com

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

 

3-7-13 Key Largo Offshore Fishing Report

Well it’s been pretty chilly while March offshore fishing in Key Largo the past couple of days. This week has felt more like a January week to be honest with you. The fishing trips lately have been decent, but the days have been decided by only a couple of bites! Sometimes its like that while Key Largo Fishing, you can be a hero or a zero by catching or missing the couple quality bites you get on a fishing trip. Bait was tough this morning, but after trying our 4th spot we had enough live bait to go put the kites up. After about 30 minutes we got a bite. Fortunately we hooked and landed the sailfish. I got some underwater video of the fish boatside and he swam off healthy. We tried for another hour after that but no more kite bites, so then we went and decided to catch some dinner fish. We “chicken rigged” about 15 lane snappers and after that finished off the day by releasing 7 or 8 barracuda. Yesterday we caught a few mahi and lost a few, as well as missing a pack of sailfish. Sometimes they can make you look foolish, and this group of fish got the best of us. In the afternoon we anchored down for some bottom fishing and caught a big margate, a nice yellowtail snapper, and then released about 6 black grouper, including a couple that would have been keepers if they were in season (shallow water grouper season is closed until May 1st). Before the temperatures dropped drastically the bottom fishing was good on the reef, we were catching plenty of yellowtail as well as a few mutton snapper. We also have been catching some cobia inside the reef following sting rays, about 1/2 the fish have been keepers and the rest have been throw backs. We had one monster a couple weeks ago that weighed 57 lbs! Offshore we also went deep dropping in 500′ of water, where it’s legal to keep certain deep water groupers, and we caught a nice 15 lb snowy grouper. Back on the reef we have also been having lots of fun with barracuda. We’ll probably stick it out on the reef the next few weeks for most our our key largo fishing charters, but hopefully we’ll hit up the humps for a couple days as well. So when you’re ready to go on your fishing trip shoot me an email and I’d love to get you out, it’s worth the 20 minute drive south!

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

bnmcharters@gmail.com

2-20-13 February Offshore Fishing in Key Largo

It’s been a busy week here in the Florida Keys, and the Offshore Key Largo Fishing Charters have been a good bet for action! I’ll start with today and work my way backwards to tell you about our latest Fishing Trips in Key Largo. We’ve been fishing 20 miles south of Key Largo, and there’s been a little bit of everything on the edge of the reef. Today we went to a wreck first thing in the morning and caught a pair of decent size amberjack to 30 lbs, as well as releasing a 100 lb sandbar shark. We then came back to the edge of the reef and put the live baits out. We caught a few king mackerel to 8 lbs, as well as a pair of keeper mutton snapper and a couple of nice 2 lb yellowtail snapper. At theend of that we hooked a big bottom fish, which turned out to be a 15 lb black grouper that we released after a quick pic (shallow water grouper season opens up again on May 1st). After that we found a sailfish swimming inside the reef, but he refused to eat a bait so we let him be. We finished up the day by catching and releasing a handful of barracuda up to about 15 lbs. Yesterday we did two 1/2 day fishing charters in Key Largo and the morning sailfish was the target species. It was quite for the first hour but then we hooked what we were after. After a 30 minute fight we had a nice 50 lb key largo sailfish boat side and took a couple pictures and then released him to fight another day. We also caught a king mackerel, little tunny, and a jack. In the afternoon we had a Key Largo Family Fishing Trip with a father and 2 sons, 8 and 11 years old. Action was the goal to keep the kids entertained so that’s what we did. We started out by catching everyone a barracuda, and then moved to some bottom fishing for dinner! We caught a handful of yellowtail snapper, mangrove snapper, a couple spanish mackerel, and a 5 lb margate for dinner. We also let go 5 groupers and a few other reef dwellers. The day before that we also did 2 half day charters and caught snapper, mackerel, released grouper, and released barracuda. On the 16th we released 2 sailfish in the morning, and then caught a 15 lb blackfin tuna, as well as a few king mackerel to 20 lbs, and then finished off the day with 15 snapper for dinner, and released another nice big black grouper. Fishing in Key Largo in February gives us a few different options but the reef is still the best bet for a good day. Let us know if you want to get out on a trip!

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

bnmcharters@gmail.com