More on the Captain Dallas Approved Fish Cleaning Table

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In between naps, solving all the world's problems and playing lumber jack, I have been fiddling with the fish cleaning table.  The new cypress base stand has been tested and photographed by a real semi-professional photographer.  Unfortunately, the semi-professional photographer and I were not able to get some scantily clad young lovely to pose with the table.  At least my fat butt is not in these photos which may help sales.

This is what the Cypress Kit will look like when you get one.  It will be packaged of course and include  fasteners for assembly.  With the pre-drilled holes for fasteners it goes together very easily.  Here is another view.

Assembled, the table and cypress base look fantastic!

I am pretty proud with how it came out.  Good looking, easy to assemble and pre-stained to last a long time, estimated 20 plus years.  While the design is simple, it is rock solid.  I am a wood fan but many prefer stainless or aluminum.  Those are next on the agenda along with the mother of all custom bases.


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 Neglected my Blog Again!

My apologies for not keeping things up dated.  As an energy geek, the stuff in Japan has diverted my attention.  I have written a bunch of stuff on my energy blog.  So far, I stand behind my prediction, even though there are a few dozen Phd types that think I am an idiot. Pfttt to them, I'm righter than they are nah nah nah.  Not to belittle the tragedy over there, but there has been some wild and crazy speculation going on.

If you happen to be in town, there is a Blues Brothers act appearing at Salty's once in a while that is a riot.  I like the regular entertainment here in town, but something new is nice.  Fishing, I have not done much.  We tried the Bay a couple days ago for black tip sharks and got skunked.  The conditions in the Bay are changing to spring mode.  Unfortunately, one of Flatlines motors decided it needs some TLC.  That puts a crimp in Chris' friend's and family's on the water adventures.

Other guys have been doing great on the tarpon and ocean side stuff.  Jeff Knapp has been kicking tarpon butt better that he has in years.  Howard at Pip's and the other guys in old town have been catching everything from good size dolphin to impressive muttons.  Very solid action for any time of the year.

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

He' a Rocketman!

Robert "Rocketman" Hudson is back on stage at Porky's Bay Side!  Rocketman suffered a stroke a while back, but is getting back to doing what he loves to do.  Tonight was his first back on stage as Rocketman.  He has plenty of fans out there that will celebrate the news.

With the winds blowing with the last cold front, it is tough for me to find things to do other than solving all the world's problems on the internet.  So I just had to wander over to Mark's with a filched butternut squash and beg for food.  All Mark had was antelope, elk and oryx tenderloins.  You know, a little caribou or moose would be nice every now and again.  Seems like all I ever get is venison, elk, antelope and oryx.

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'm a Lumberjack and I'm Okay

Yes, that is the sun reflecting off the front of the RV!  After putting on real shoes, I have attacked the Florida Holly tree that is killing the palms and making it tough to get around the RV.  BTW, the Florida Holly is considered an invasive species, no native trees were harmed during the removal.  Next up is an almond tree that is ticking me off.

Heck, I may even hire the homeless to help clean the front up so Michele can stick her crap up there.  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

Thoughts on Fisheries Management

I have enjoyed the past few days off dealing with the jungle around the RV and getting Flatlines ready for the crew coming down this month.  As most of you know, regulations are really starting to put a cramp in my style, so I have spent a bit of time pondering the problem. 

The worst part is that the Keys is not a good fit for either the Gulf or Atlantic regulation zones.  Gag Grouper, may be having issues in the Atlantic due to over fishing.  In the Keys whatever problems the Gag Groupers are having are more due to Goliath Grouper FKA Jewfish predation.  We have a bunch of Goliath's down here and they munch on Gag's anytime they get a chance.  Many Bay Side spots have fewer Gags and lots more Goliaths.  Seems pretty clear to me that preferential regulation of one species is harming the other.  So a Keys Zone should include some fair way of controlling Goliath stocks.

The Deep drop zone regulation banning drops in water over 240 feet is total nonsense for the Keys.  Off Jacksonville, Snowy Grouper were thick in the 260 foot range.  Down here, because of water temperature, the Snowies start in the 400 foot range.  The regulation makes no sense at all South of Daytona. 

The powers at be are proposing catch shares.  Dividing catches between charters/recreational and commercial fishermen.  That may make sense north of Daytona, but from around Daytona south the percentage of charters and recreational is much higher than up north.  Economically, charters and recreational fishermen have an equal of greater impact than commercials with a lower percentage of harvest per buck spent.  That has to be addressed by something other than catch shares and closed seasons.

Then the powers are thinking about letting the commercials swap quotas with each other and borrow on future catches!  Catches vary from year to year because fish populations and habits  vary.  That is a natural regulation that can be screwed up by letting over harvesting happen in selected areas and selected seasons.  I thought conservation was the main idea?  That is just plain stupid if you are trying to maintain health stock levels.

Now the powers are planning to regulate species that have no significant pressure.  Not because they need to based on sound management practice, but because they can! There is already a 100 pounds per person limit in place for non regulated species.  Why add crap warm and fuzzy regulations when there is already reasonable regulation?

Anyway, if you get a chance tell every politician you know that things are not making sense.  Tell them to regulate areas that have verifiable data showing it is over fished and leave the rest alone.  Then explaining common sense to most politicians is like explaining nuclear physics to five year old kids.  Still we gotta try, with the politicians that is, the kids we need to explain the computers to us.

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

Leon Shell Memorial Sailfish Tournament has a Winner!

Captain James "Bucko" Platt wins the 2011 Leon Shell Memorial Sailfish Tournament.  Bucko is one of the young captains here in Marathon that really pushes me to catch mo' bigga fish.  Bucko fishes out of the slightly rival Seven Mile Marina.  Congrats Bucko!

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

Leon Shell Memorial Sailfish Tournament

The Leon Shell Tournament is this weekend here in Marathon.  Some people wonder why I don't sign up for these tournaments.  So while the wind is blowing 30 knots out of the East I will reflect on why I am not a dedicated tournament fisherman.

Getting together with dedicated tournament fishermen is always interesting.  These talented anglers make elaborate plans to improve their odds of success, catching or buying the perfect bait, the newest products and assembling the finest crews.  Often hundreds of thousands of dollars are invested to build just the right combination of boat, bait, gear and crew.  These tournaments are dedicated to the finest of the finest with intricate rules like "captain's discretion".   That means if the captain thinks he can handle the weather, fishing is a go!

After fishing a few days in 12 foot seas with the wind honking for a prize often worth more in bragging rights than cash, I find pondering why I decided to have a prime rib sandwich at the dock while listening to the more adventurous boats describe incredible displays of nature at its angriest, more entertaining than getting my old butt kicked.

So I will probably stop by tournament central, enjoy another prime rib sandwich and listen to all the excitement on the VHF.  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. 

UPDATE:  Since I did not fish the wind is only 20 knots.  The anglers should thank me for not entering. :)

Tight lines,

Capt. Dallas

Then the Wind Blew

Miss Jess started the morning off with a bang!  Two nice mangs about two pounds each.  The crew released a grouper and lost several nice fish to the coral.  Then visions fish feast died with the current and the wind kicking up to 19 knots with gust to 23.  It was a little sloppy but fishable.  Though, running into the wind was a major pain.  We lost more fish than went in the box.  I was very disappointed that the blue runners invaded one of the better spots so we missed the Yellowtail bite we had yesterday.  I also managed to tweak an anchor showing them the "easy" way to pull the hook.  We added two more Mangs, a couple of nice porgies and only one tail to the box.

The wind will probably blow us out tomorrow since they are mackereled out, but a Key Weird trip should make up for the lost day on the water.

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

Slow Day, But We did Alright

This morning started with a bang.  Nice fat mutton, ballyhoo in the live well.  Then the current died and the wind shifted to the West.  It was hunt and peck after that.  We finished with two muttons, two hogfish, a few porgies and a mess of legal but not impressive tails.

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

Bay Side Trip February 28

Getting larger mackerel to the boat with the herd of black tip sharks looking for a snack was more of a challenge than normal.  This fat Cero made it through the gantlet along with about a dozen buddies mainly of the Spanish variety.  If I didn't have the video on, the black tips put on a good show leaping and spinning.  They were mainly camera shy though.  I will work on the video issue to see if I can post a leap or two.

The Mangroves were disappointing in the bay.  Plentiful, but no size where we set up shop.  Back to the reef today since the winds have laid down.  Since we made all the silly mistakes yesterday, (left the chum bags and broke the GPS bracket) today we should look a little more like we know what we are doing.

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