Congrats to Bucky!

Bucky on the No Slack won the first annual Seven Mile Marina Shark Tourney. Twelve bull sharks by noon for 3600 points and a commanding lead. I was going to interview Bucky, but thanks to new plumbing issues I had to leave early to deal with minor bedroom flooding.

Prior to the flood, the Shark Tourney was a blast, both at the dock and on the boats. I was dockside since my sponsor wimped out. 25 knot winds, he must have had his skirt on. Definitely a fun tourney to think about for next year. The food provided by Rumbums was fantastic. Dan and crew at the 7 mile did a great job running their first tourney. But, with sharks as the target, a few captains had some aches and pains they normally don't have. There were some big fish caught and released that really didn't want to participate.

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

I Owe a Serious Apology to all Marathon Fishermen

Thursday on the radio I told everyone how easy it is to catch bait. That day of course I caught squat for bait. The whole Marathon fleet had issues catching bait. It was my fault and I admit it. My apologies to everyone for the jinx.

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

Your Sex Life and Carrots

I didn't fish today so I spent time on my second best skill. Sex. As you age you begin to wonder how long you can perform. I found out today that nearly endless stamina is available if you eat your veggies.


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

More Marathon Fishing

The predators won most of the battles today. Between sharks and barracuda the box looked pretty dismal. We lost ten or twelve nice bottom fish to sharks and 'cudas. Even the King Mackerel we caught yesterday didn't want to play for fear of reprisal.

Finally, I decide to get revenge on the predators. We headed to the Rubble Pile to whack some 'cudas. But the Hammerheads whacked the 'cudas we were trying to whack. How we managed to get the sweet African Pompano pictured is beyond me. Anywho, we got one nice fish and dozens of "Dang it! Not agains." I need a few victims, er customers to target large sharks hanging out at my honey holes.

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

A Little Snapper Action

Not a particularly great day, but pretty steady. Have Joe Hobbs and his son Jordan down for a few days. We did some meat fishing for snapper. Pretty much limited on snapper but only had one big one. A 12 pound mutton plus released a decent Jewfish. I have put these guys on some serious fish so the heat is on.

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

Finally! I Have Water Pressure.

Never have I had such a simple project take so long to complete. Today I can now enjoy a luxurious shower that is well past due. Fishing wise, I have today off then three days fishing with regular customers that are a joy to fish with and then a couple trips with some new customers that seem to be pretty savvy. Happy days are here again.

This is my time of the year. I can put people on damn near anything they want. The guys that come down this time of year are serious fisherfolks so my life is much easier. And the weather starts getting a bit more fisher friendly. Now if I can just remember to take some photos, the blog should get more interesting.

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

Dumb asses, There are plenty.

Ten birds wants to know where I am going with this. I am not sure but it is not a pretty place. I came home to a plumbing problem and disappearing tools. My significant other may have helped liberate my square head drive among other things.

I hate plumbing! But tomorrow I have to buy tools that I already own but can't find to fix a problem that should have taken no time to repair. The significant other inspired the title. If she were a little less helpful things would go more smoothly. Oh did I mention I hate plumbing?

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

BTW, with a backed up toilet and no water for coffee I am not a happy camper. This could get ugly.

I Am the Guy with the Blog.

I ran a trip for a buddy today out of Fishing Fun Boat Rentals. It was not a great trip. The guys showed at nine, while they booked for 7, we got out by nine-thirty, the wind blew the fish didn't cooperate, the few good fish we hooked the crew lost. Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but it gets to be a challenge with five anglers on a 23 foot boat that have no clue about fishing. Especially when they are not attentive listeners.

I also spent some time showing them how to navigate, run the boat, dock the boat etc. By the way, after chatting with Barbara and Ray while waiting for my crew, Fish and Fun boat rentals does have live wells. They are recirculating live wells right now but they have plans to put in some raw water live wells in the near future. That is when Barbara said, Oh you are the guy with the website. Well I reckon, just something I do. They are pretty nice folks in my opinion. Most of their boats are Parkers, no frills but solid. You can add them to my rental boat list.

ETA: A tip on using recirculating live wells. Put a ziplock bag of ice in the water to chill the bait down and if you can find some oil of cloves put one drop for 30 gallons to put the bait fish to sleep. They will look dead until they hit the water. Amazing stuff that clove oil.

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

A Little Yellowtail Snapper Tip Before I fish Today

April and May is a great time to fish for just about everything in the Florida Keys. Right now the Sailfish are pouring through and the big Dolphin are offshore. Tarpon are at the bridges, but there is just something addictive about yellowtail snapper fishing. 'Tailing requires chum that costs money and has to be stored frozen.

To save money and time it is best to buy chum in bulk. So see if the place you are staying has freezer space available. If you have enough freezer space you can save about 12 bucks a trip on chum. The average price for good quality chum is 7 dollars per 7 pound block bought individually. At Ore Seafood, you can get a case of 8 blocks of sardine chum for 32 bucks. If you have a place to freeze the chum a good day of tailing only costs 16 dollars for chum instead of 28 bucks. If you don't have a freezer you are better off buying chum by the block.

Another tip is a good bait cooler. Brining your bait keeps them fresher longer than just putting them on ice. Add a cup or two of salt to the ice in your bait cooler to keep the silver sides or ballyhoo to keep them happy.

If you really want to get dinner quick and cheap think shallow. 'Tailing in 30 to 40 feet produces good size 'tails (14 to 18 inches) with less chum and time than the deeper water. Going for the flags in water over 60 feet takes about twice as much chum for half the number of fish. Granted, the fish can be flags over 20 inches, but you will lose a lot to the bottom and predators.

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

April Full Moon

I fished yesterday but didn't post. Why? Because I sucked! After talking to a few captains that fished yesterday I feel better about posting. Because I wasn't the only one that sucked.

The full moon does weird things to fishing. I know that and have written about it before. Avoid the moon if you can. This moon though was really weird. Twenty five mile west of Marathon the sailfish bite was awesome. Some boat leadered over 40 fish. Where I fished it sucked. We saw a lot of fish that would not eat. That is subject to change. We had green water off the reef Key Weird did not. That may explain the weirdness I encountered yesterday. Anyhoo, the big dolphin are moving in and there are a ton of sailfish in the area. Let the moon get a little darker and things are going to happen.

Rick the Pips dock master was the high dolphin hand of the day yesterday. He boated a 28# cow and a 45# bull just two miles East of me. So I zigged when I should have zagged. Close but no cigar for Capt. Dallas.

I hate posting stuff like this, but it is a real world. I don't always catch. I had to use all my jokes and resort to flats fishing for 'cuda to put smiles on faces.

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

Wind is Blowing so Some Blog Update Stuff

With the wind blowing over 30 knots this morning I made the rounds to see what was happening. Not much, everybody is just chillin' waiting for the weekend weather that is supposed to be nice. I noticed that one of my links was busted so I talked to John at The Castaway Restaurant and found out that his old link was lost so he has a new website he is building. He has a good start and tada, he has a link to my blog. I am still trying to get Porky's Bayside to start a website so I can link there.

While I was talking to John I mentioned that I am planning a cook your catch post highlighting what you can expect from the old town restaurants. The more I think about it the more I think it should be a major event. So I am going to talk to several places and see if they want to showcase their cook your catch specialties. This should be fun and I might get a few free munchies for the exercise.

If the weather cooperates I have a reef trip tomorrow and a tuna trip Sunday. I'll let you know how it all pans out.

I also have plans to simplify the labels to make it easier to find the info you want on the blog. That is not going to happen quick but it is in the works.

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

A Little Half Day

I took some guys out on a deck boat for a half day with the winds kicked up. Nothing to write home about but Jackie caught the most fish so that was a good thing. It was supposed to be a calm water trip, but I did what we could do under the conditions. The bigger boat guys got to be more adventurous. A few caught some dolphin and some decent reef fish but it wasn't all that exciting. Dave Shugar on the Sweet Enough did manage a nice mutton and a very nice cobia. Unfortunately he lost a big Wahoo. That would have been a trip maker for sure. Still, I met Dave at Castaway's and sampled the fresh Cobe. Most excellent groceries if I have to say so myself.

Dave actually gave me a bag of fresh cobia that paid my cable bill for the month. Ah, life in the Keys. I have a few larger boat trips in the future so maybe I can return the favor.

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

Report for the Week so Far

Had a Fishing 101 Monday with a bunch of guys from Jersey. One of them is a regular reader of my blog so they had pretty much all the right gear they needed for fishing in the Keys. Started with pinfish no problem. Then took them to show them patch fishing in Hawk Channel. The big lanes were not hitting, but a lot of smaller ones so next we hit the reef for yellow tail snapper. Caught all the snapper they wanted in about an hour and showed them how to hair hook ballyhoo. Then how to trade the live ballyhoo in on mackerel. The mackerel bite was slower than I thought it should be but we hooked a few.

On the bottom they caught several grouper with all of them short. One red grouper was close, but not cigar. The offshore reports were pretty pitiful, so I talked them through trolling for Dolphin and tuna instead of wasting time.

Then my blood pressure spiked so I move towards the bridge to show them some areas for early morning Tarpon and the usual bridge suspects. We called the trip early so I could find out what my BP was and get it under some kind of control and so one of the crew could resolve an impending bowel issue.

Spent yesterday visiting the clinic and getting prescribed for a new BP medication and monitoring my BP. Today I have a Half day with a cariologist who said he should be able to keep me alive for at least four hours.

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