December Key Largo Backcountry Fishing Report

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

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