Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Fishing 101 Student Photos




Ray and crew set some photos of their latest trips.  Lots of Tuna, nice reef mixed bag and some AJs.


Marathon in the Florida Keys should be your next fishing vacation destination. Join us for charter fishing, fishing guide trips or our fishing 101 so you can fish on your own with better success.

 Tight lines,

 Capt. Dallas

The Slammer Dolphin search continues

We worked all the way out to the wall, over 1000 feet of water yesterday and nary a sign of big dolphin.   I noticed that a few charter boats found one or two in close while fishing for other things but I didn't see enough weeds and floaters offshore to really target the big fish quite yet.

We hit the Marathon hump again with two boats pulling darts and combined for about 20 tuna.  The Blackfin are mixed in with the Skippies.  There were around 30 boats fishing the Hump and yesterday most were hooking up.  I worked the top of the Hump for a while since the boats out there yesterday were a bit more organized and the other boat worked the outside.  We did a little better but not enough to write home about.  We also found tuna a few miles west of the Hump under birds so if you don't want to fight the crowd you can do your own thing and save a little fuel.

I noticed that all the tuna caught were filled with krill so it might be fun to drift some shrimp on light spinning gear if you  want some exercise.  If you are really looking for a workout, yesterday you could have hooked up with a fly rod without too much trouble.  For bigger fish though, live white bait in 200 to 300 foot of water is probably your best bet.  I am a fan of easy so unless I can get bait quick, dragging lures works just fine.

Since we have an iffy weather forecast and the gang will be here all week, I probably won't fish today.  A number of the crew have tarpon on their bucket lists and right now the tarpon bite is pretty spectacular, so they are likely to give that a shot this evening.  Pinfish have hooked most of the tarpon from what I hear but there are mullet around which are never a bad thing to have tarpon fishing.

As usual, I managed to not get any good photos and as usual I have been promised plenty, but time will tell.

 Marathon in the Florida Keys should be your next fishing vacation destination. Join us for charter fishing, fishing guide trips or our fishing 101 so you can fish on your own with better success.

 Tight lines,

 Capt. Dallas

Monday, March 28, 2016

Offshore - Tuna

I was really hoping to find a nice big Dolphin aka mahi, but I must have zigged when I should have zagged.  In any case, the tuna bite was pretty good and we lost a couple of bragging size fish to either sharks or tail wrap.

Most of the bite was at or near the hump and we put a baker's dozen in the box mainly, skippies with black fin and a few were most likely skippies but had very faded markings.  A bit different and I should have taken a few photos, but forgot.

Tomorrow is supposed to be another calm day so we may do another hump trip or play around closer in looking for sails etc.

Marathon in the Florida Keys should be your next fishing vacation destination. Join us for charter fishing, fishing guide trips or our fishing 101 so you can fish on your own with better success.

 Tight lines,

 Capt. Dallas

Saturday, March 26, 2016

Busy again



This season is definitely holiday driven so far.  I have been on the water the past few days doing Bay half days and sight seeing/snorkeling trips.  Today I finally got a half day on the reef and patches with a family from LA, lower Alabama that didn't have much fishing experience.  This trip was last minute booking on the lil Lady Catherine so I had to act like a real captain and everything.  Mom showed 'em how to git 'er done with some nice Lane Snapper to 18 inches and released a 23" black grouper.  Bit slow on the reef with mainly just undersized 'tail and then a Needle fish invasion. Did manage a couple of respectable Progies, but I think we missed the main bite a little earlier in the morning.

Offshore has been interesting with a few big dolphin caught in close along with a good Wahoo here and there.  Hit the right day and sailfish have been tailing which is always fun.  Tarpon have also fired off early this year.  I will be fishing the next four or five days on larger boats so maybe I will get some first hand offshore info.

Marathon in the Florida Keys should be your next fishing vacation destination. Join us for charter fishing, fishing guide trips or our fishing 101 so you can fish on your own with better success.


 Tight lines,

 Capt. Dallas

Thursday, March 17, 2016

The lil Lady Catherine


With the Island Hopper bound for Hawaii, the 26 foot sailfish is the new Lady Cathrine.  David and I fished with 5 anglers today and she done good.  Of course you don't really need a captain and mate on a 26 footer, but 5 and 6 anglers can be pretty tough on one guy.

I considered today as kind of a check out for the sailfish.  With 7 pretty hefty guys, full of fuel and loaded with gear, she ran great and rode nice and stable.  The bite was a bit slow with the current being very weak, but after finding a friendlier current when caught a nice mess of yeloowtail snapper and big eye snapper or toro.  The toro isn't in the same family as snapper, but they do eat about as well.  We also kept enough good sized grunts for an appetizer.

The pork fish in the photo is the only picture I took on my phone, but the crew took quite a few and might share them later.  I probably need to take more photos of the sailfish center console for my next post.  I am not sure what all the rates are going to be or what kind of discounts I can finangle.,but I will try to set up something for the off season.

Most everyone is doing good fishing and there are some good offshore reports for tuna and dolphin.  I noticed that Bucko boated his first Tarpon of the season and the Lil Lady Catherine will be available for Tarpon trips.
Marathon in the Florida Keys should be your next fishing vacation destination. Join us for charter fishing, fishing guide trips or our fishing 101 so you can fish on your own with better success.

 Tight lines,
 Capt. Dallas

Tuesday, March 01, 2016

Looks like the Lady Catherine is headed to Hawaii

Yesterday may have been the last two trips for the Lady Catherine 30 foot Island Hopper in the Florida Keys.  She done good if if was with a nice mess of Hogfish, Mangroves, Yellowtail, one nice mutton, a load of Yellowjacks, a Goliath Grouper (Jewfish) and Gag Grouper release plus a few others.

It seems that thanks to regulation it is easier for a dive operator in Hawaii to by a certified boat in the Keys, build a trailer to haul it to California then ship it to Hawaii than it is to find a boat locally.  Once there, the Lady Catherine should be a shark cage dive boat.

 Kinda fitting that the last day started with a morning half and ended with a combined fishing and sunset cruise and a profit for a change.  As is usual, it ain't over until the check clears, but it looks like the Sailfish center console will be the new charter boat.


Marathon in the Florida Keys should be your next fishing vacation destination. Join us for charter fishing, fishing guide trips or our fishing 101 so you can fish on your own with better success.

 Tight lines,

 Capt. Dallas