Respectable Dolphin in Close

Here is tony with a nice Dolphin.  With great weather and the last day in town, he just could not resist the urge to get offshore.  Luckily, the fish are in close so we were able to put together a whirl wind trip with some sight seeing to round out the end of their rainy but fun vacation.

Nick on the left and Anthony holding the 'fin pose with the fresh catch of the day.  Every boat was getting a fish or two in this size range, but not much in the way of "bailing" was heard today other than black fin at the humps for the brave of heart.  Some of the charters have been heading way south and bagging more and bigger fish.

Next week will there will be different crews and what looks like much better weather.  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

Yellowtail Please

The weather broke long enough to get the kids out to the reef for some Yellowtail Snapper fishing.  This is Anthony with one of his 'tails.  Brother Nick was too busy catching to pose for the photo op.  Since there was not much time between the thunder clouds, we set up in about 35 feet of water for a fast bite with legal but not large 'tails. I am not sure what the final count was, but Nick and Anthony had plenty in the box for fish sammies all around. 

They were hoping for a fishing adventure with Dolphin, aka Dorado aka Mahi Mahi, but that looks like it will have to be next trip. 


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

 Tarpon and Martinis were the story for today's trip.  We had about 2 hours of overcast skies with light rain this morning.  We found a school of Tarpon that looked like they might be hungry but went bagels on bites.  In the photo I am photographing the fishermen photographing the fish while we start getting soaked to the bone.   Getting soaked with water, fresh or salt, is not uncommon while fishing, but it a lot more tolerable when the fish bite or at least show themselves.  Several hundred Tarpon did show themselves, rolling all around the boat, but they were busy doing other things than feeding when we made it to the bridge.  That is not going to last long.  They will start biting and the weather will clear, today we just had to settle on fish photos and wet Martinis. 

 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

Mom Takes the Pot

Mom, aka Wendy, shows the boys Anthony and Nick what a fish looks like, Dad is left holding the Grouper.

The weatherman was wrong in the right direction so we were able to fish without getting any new bruises.  The trip started slow with all the stuff needed for a fishing 101.  Not a great bite today.  Plenty of Mangroves in the chum slick but they had serious lock jaw.  We lost a few respectable fish, Grouper most likely, due to some questionable line, on a day when every bite needed to count.  On the whole, Mom and the kids had fun, but I was a bit grumpy with all the fish eating for free and not wanting to play. 

Tomorrow is another fishing day so perhaps I will have better fish pictures, but I doubt I could have a much happier crew.

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

What Happened to the Grouper Post?

With Grouper season opening just a couple of days ago I be you were expecting a Grouper post right?  Well, no can do.  With the opening of Grouper Season there was also an opening of the skys.  We had some spectacular lightning and torrential rain.  that all that unusual for the Keys.

What was unusual was the computer failures following the lightning.  At Pancho's Fuel Dock ther was a nice 80 foot or so yatch that spent the night and fueled up in the morning.  When they prepare to head out, they noticed that their ship's/yatch's computer system would not start any of the bildge pumps.  So they had to jump out the computer system and install manual switches for the pumps.  Boring boat stuff right?

Well across the canal, Burdine's Marina had a complete computer failure an could not pump fuel.  Two computer fairly close together with simultaneous major malfunctions during a kick butt thunderstorm.  No, lightning did not strike both of the computers.  So what happened?

Dark Ligthning  Dark lightning is also known as a terrestrial gamma ray burst.  The super high static electrical energy of the Thunder clouds produces not only Electrons but their anti-matter counter part, Positrons.  When the two collide they mutually annihilate producing high energy gamma rays.  Gamma rays are the type of nuclear radiation that requires the thick lead shielding to prevent damage.  With the cloud gamma ray burst directly over head, it is a likely cause of the computer failures.  

Moral of the story; have manual back-ups for critical systems. 

Since I was a bit busy avoid both the Dark and white lightning, plus dealing with horizontal rain finding every possible opening into the RV, today was a clothes washing and hunt up missing stuff day.  So any of you want to risk a quick fishing vacation between weird weather events, give me a call, I think the worst of it is over for this week.

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