Scuffle at Porky's Bayside

Marathon is a sleepy little drinking town with fishing problems. Some vacationers don't realize that as drinkers they are rank amateurs.

Down on Vacation Back on Probation: Scuffle at Porky's Bayside
In a rare event, a fist fight slash wresting match with a touch of martial arts action briefly broke out at Porky's Bayside restaurant Monday night.
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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

Rental Boat Humor

Working on the water in the Florida Keys has many moments. Many of those moments involve rental boat operators. One of the funniest happened recently. A rental boat operator calls in for help on the VHF radio. He complained that his boat was full of water and that alarms were sounding. While the rental boat company tried to calm the operator and talk him through the situation, there was no calming the rental boat operator.

The rental boat company sends a chase boat to help the operator. As the chase boat arrives, the captain sees the bright orange PFD clad boaters frantically bailing water. They had been bailing for nearly an hour and were making no headway. As the chase boat nears the stranded boat, the frantic boaters were screaming to get off their sinking vessel to board the chase boat. The frantic boaters were screaming, the engine alarm on the boat was blaring and the chase boat operator yelling at the top of his lungs for everyone to shut up and stay put where they were. The chase boat driver then tells the renters to stop trying to bailout the live well and put the kill switch in to stop the damned alarm.

Now if you are a boater right now you will be chuckling. If you aren’t chuckling here is a little explanation. The kill switch is a safety switch that will kill the boat motor should the boater fall out of the boat. It works well if the boat operator remembers to clip the kill switch lanyard to his life vest. If the kill switch is not plugged in the boat won’t start and loud alarms sound when the key is turned on, hopefully reminding the boaters that the kill switch is not plugged in. Still not chuckling?

The particular boat that was rented has a below deck live well. Most of the live well is below the water line, so if the boat is in the water, water freely flows into the live well. The boaters looked in the live well, saw water and thought the boat was sinking. If you didn’t start chuckling during the second paragraph, I highly recommend you hire a guide before venturing out on your own in any 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

Palermo? No Problem.

The season has not started in earnest, though a few captains are getting out. Hurricane Palermo is south of Cuba and should not pose a threat to the Keys. The fishing reports I have been getting are pretty good. Sailfish are showing up on the reef with two boats reporting sailfish while fishing for yellow tails. Along with the sailfish are good number of Cero Mackerel and a few nice size king mackerel.

Cobia have been spotted cruising the tide line in Hawks channel. Nice size fish from twenty to fifty pounds. You have to be a little lucky to spot them. The grouper and big mangrove snapper bite has been a bit slow. Mutton snapper are helping fill that void which is nice. Bayside reports are a little inconsistent. The Spanish mackerel are moving in, but they don't want to eat every trip. The next cold front should fire them up. So get ready to make tons of fish dip and fish cakes. You can check out my recipes in the cooking lable on the side bar.

The fish cleaning table is getting close. We had a shipping error so a few are wandering around the Midwest. Once we get a few more delivered we will start the testing program. The tiki drawing are approved for Monroe County. So I will be spending some time selling tikis and tables. I will try to keep fishing open three or four days a week. This is going to make my schedule pretty weird so book in advance if you can.

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