4-6-13 Offshore fishing report for Key Largo

Sorry I haven’t given you guys more of a recent key largo fishing report! I have been fishing almost every day and today I’m gonna tell you what I’ve been catching a little south of Key Largo! Overall the past few weeks the fishing has been decent. Mixed bags are the name of the game when fishing in Key Largo in April. We have still be focusing on the reef lately, doing everything from live baiting with kites, slow trolling live baits, and bottom fishing. We hit some nice cobias earlier this week, including this 40 lber. We had some really good king mackerel fishing, with fish up to 25 lbs. The snapper bite has been pretty good too, including everything from lane, yellowtail, mutton and vermillion! We have also be doing some Shark fishing in the Florida Keys and caught and released a nice hammerhead today weighing close to 200 lbs and earlier in the week we released a giant 500 lb tiger shark! We also have been doing some wreck fishing catching amberjack, releasing goliath grouper, african pompano, etc. I got out one day Swordfishing in Key Largo, on the 21st of March, and it wasn’t a red hot bite, we waited the entire day for 1 bite actually, but fortuantely our hook was sharp and after a 30 minute battle we landed a respectable 115 lb broadbill swordfish. We have also been releasing many shallow water groupers (blacks, reds, and gags) the past few weeks since the season is close until May 1st. We caught a couple sailfish the past few weeks, but the bite has definitely been on the slower side, and for action there better things to do! Let me know when you’re down in Key Largo and want to go fishing! It’s worth the 20 minute drive south!

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

bnmcharters@gmail.com

3-15-13 Offshore Key Largo Fishing Report in mid March

The past week has been a little windy while doing our key largo fishing. It hasn’t stopped us from getting out though, we’ve stayed on the edge of the reef most days, but we did venture out further one day for some shark fishing. The yellowtail snapper bite has been pretty good overall the past week, there’s also been a few cobia when the conditions are right with good visibility, there’s been plenty of barracuda action, the king mackerel bite has been spotty, but we did have one great day with our limit of fish up to 31 lbs, There’s been a couple mutton snapper in the mix and we have been releasing lots of grouper (shallow water groupers are closed for harvest until May 1st). Remember when fishing in Key Largo that the easiest way to have a good time is to do what the weather conditions are most productive for. We also did a shark fishing charter and caught and released a big bull shark around 275 lbs and then released a giant tiger shark in the 600 lb range! If you’re ready to get out on a offshore key largo fishing charter let send me an email! It’s worth the 20 minute drive south to go fishing!

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

bnmcharters@gmail.com

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

2/23/12 Key largo goliath grouper fishing!

We were after a key largo goliath grouper fishing today.  Fished near the edge of the gulf as it was too rough to get out there deeper to the wrecks.  Lots of action early whilst catching baitfish.  A mix of trout, ladyfish, and jacks were just about every cast.  Even a few  spanish mackerel, bluefish, and pompano making their presence known!  Key Largo shark fishing was on our minds too as we caught 4 medium sized blacktip sharks while doing all this.  After we were loaded up.. goliath time!  We hit the hole that I was thinking about… all of a sudden a bunch of cobias surrounded us!  I reeled in the surface pinfish and one ate it, my angler also pitched too one and he ate as well – doubled up!  Unfortunately his spit the bait/hook, but he reeled the other one in nicely.  A little bit later after chunking some ladyfish and waiting with the big rods both doubled over hard!  We gave chase leaving one fish behind with rod in holder.  Decided to switch the fish we were working on as the one behind did roll over, and my angler started fighting him.   After a few minutes there he was – big 150 lb goliath grouper on spin tackle.. nice catch!  Grouper fishing in Key Largo is fun for these big boys!  We then switched back to the other big fish which appeared to be a big ol’ sawfish.  Fought him a bit more and I leadered him up carefully – all on monofilament 100lb!  Got hit bill out of the water twice as he thrashed violently, 2nd time though he cut us off but at least we saw him and got a technical release!  After that we hit a high water spot for some redfish which proved productive… 10 or so reds mostly keeper size though all were released.

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!