Florida Keys Backcountry Fishing Report

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It's not all about lobster mini season this week here while florida keys fishing! Capt. Rick Stanczyk fished a full day in the backcountry today on 7/28/11 and had a wonderful time. The wind was howling almost 20 knots most the day - very unusual for July! Though it kept the heat & sweat down for the most part which was a welcome change. With thousands of people in the water snorkeling and diving looking for those caribbean crawlers, we ran way in the backcountry and only saw one other boat the whole day back there! Fishing was fantastic early, we caught several large trout on shrimp and artificials. We also caught some jumbo mangrove snappers! The ladyfish were chomping too and we saved several of those for bait. We set up in one of the channels for some bigger stuff, and the bite was slow to come but produced nicely. We caught a 75 lb tarpon after our first hour. Then a 60 lb lemon shark, followed by a 40 lb hammerhead, and finally a small 30 lb blacktip! Not too shabby for the conditions and time of year. The evening bite last week was phenomenal for tarpon with the falling tide. Had caught 6 of 8 one night, a couple other nights with 3, and a couple others with 2. Plus plenty of sharks, a permit one night, and a couple other 'sea monsters.' Very cool!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk

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Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti took fellow captains & friends Rick Stanczyk and Jake Turek out for some islamorada flats fishing today on 9/2/11. We ran back to flamingo in his small Beavertail skiff and fished the shorelines and around some islands poling up where it is normally very shallow. We ended up catching 17 redfish and pulling off several more. Conditions were a little tough with overcast skies and very high water, though the falling tide did have lots of fish pushing around on the flats when you could see them! Caught a handful tailing as well on D.O.A shrimps, plus bucktails with swimming worms.