Last Day of 2014 Grouper Season

We only managed one keeper Red Grouper but had a few we had to measure a couple of times they we so close.  Hogfish and Progies filled the grouper void in the box.

Once again it was a slower than normal bite but we able to pick away to make a respectable box.  Still lost a couple of heart breakers due to hooks getting straighten or lines parting in weird places.

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

Painfully Slow - But it was a Beautiful Day

Everything was slow.  We didn't get any bait up.  Then on the very first spot I see one of the local charter captains already hunting for a trip saver.  We went offshore with visions of glossy magazine adventures and end up fighting not to get skunked.  The black grouper top just missed the mark.  The Porgie and Hogfish were nice, but that was about it.  We had hooks straighten out on a couple of fish that could have made it a decent day, but no such Karma.  That is beautiful day syndrome.

Tomorrow though is another day and the final day of grouper season, so we are going to double down and hit as many holes as possible.
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 Slow but We Did Alright

On the rock piles again this morning and it was a lot slower than yesterday.  Still we managed to get a pretty good box of Yellowtail, Lane Snapper, and one nice Red Grouper.  We tried the Bay Side for a couple of hours in the afternoon and it was slow as well.  We did get one good Mangrove Snapper for the box and one Spanish Mackerel for nuggets, but there were more jacks and Bluefish than normal. Most of the mackerel boats on the Bay Side were a few miles further North, but  since we had to turn in the boat, we just settle for what we got instead of making the longer run.

On the whole Chicago Joe's crew had a pretty fair fishing part of this years vacation.

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 Fish Won, but We Got a Few

 (305) 304-8656

The fish kind of won today.  We picked up a few nice fish, a Mutton, some porgies and a few Mangroves but.....

 There were some other hungry critters that took more than their fair share.  So we lost a lot of very nice fish to the bottom and sharks.

Since this was a family fun day, we changed crews and tried the bridge and the rock piles so we could stay close to Burdines to drop off and pick up.  One of the test spinning outfits met more than its match today and a rod broke.  Bummer, I like the light weight graphite rod but as is common, they tend to be a bit delicate for my kind of fishing.

Tomorrow, there is a serious grudge match brewing with some of the critters that got away and got away with dinner.  Conditions btw are pretty nice, it is a bit sloppy out front but not bad once you are at anchor, provided you don't get a sloppy one over the bow.

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

Average Day of Catching

Now that the Holiday stuff is out of the way time for more fishing.  Mixed bag today with fewer Hogfish than I expected and zero keeper grouper.  We got one grouper that was close but no cigar.  I was planning on staying on the patches all day and picking way at the Hogfish,Porgies and Grouper but the current was a bit of a pain early in the day.  So most of the catching was done on the rock piles.  There were several mystery fish and a short Cobia, but on the whole just an average day of catching.

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

Know Yo Bait

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The new Cell Number

The European pilchard, Sardina pilchardus

While the winds are marginal, my crew in town are waiting till after Christmas for their Fishing adventure.  The weather isn't bad, but taking a day or two to spend with the family is generally good for martial relations.  So while I am doing not on the water stuff I thought I should post some pictures of bait.  The Pilchard aka Scaled Sardine, Spanish Sardine etc. etc. is a prime bait for just about anything.  The larger ones, over four inches are great offshore and the small ones are like snapper candy.  Having a live well full of these guys is serious fishing ammunition.  They can piss off the Pope though.  One day they are a no brainer to catch and the next you can waste most of your fuel for nothing.  So if you are down for a while, it is a good thing to have a bait keep in the water close so you can load up in the good times.  Some of the canals are not all that great for keeping bait especially if there is a lot of dead sea grass floating.  So you might have to locate your keep away from the dock in some sheltered spot hoping that no one wanders off with your keep.  For that reason, you will rarely see a ton of money thrown in making the bait keep to end all bait keeps. In a pinch, a garbage can with lots of holes drilled in it works fine as long as you don't over load it with bait.  Strapping a fun noodle to the top keeps it floating and a bungie will keep the lid in place.

The ballyhoo or bally, Hemiramphus brasiliensis

The ballyhoo is another great bait in the Keys alive or dead.  That is a good thing since they tend to prefer the dead state.  You can keep ballyhoo alive in a good live well for about 6 hours if you really watch them.  Just like pilchards they can be a piece of cake to catch one day and non existent the next.  Most of the time they are pretty easy to catch so that is a plus.  While waiting for them to show up in your chum slick, you can add a few menu items like snapper, porgies, hog fish etc. to the box if you pick a good spot.  

These are the two main sailfish baits for the winter season down here.  You can catch both with small hooks, size 10, a small piece of bait just about as big as the gap in the hook and a small float like for fresh water panfish will help especially for the ballyhoo.  Pilchards will also take a Sabiki rig but a cast net is the way to go for both species.

If you can throw an eight foot radius cast net you can throw a 12 footer.  Guides will normally use a 12 foot net.  For the occasional angler a 7 of 8 foot net works just fine. Size does matter but technique is important as well.   A seven foot net with an extra long lease can be just the ticket for spooky ballyhoo.  With just a little practice anyone can wing a net for bait.

pinfish, Lagodon rhomboides

Pinfish are the easiest bait to catch with hook and line or with a trap.  They are more of a challenge with a cast net than you might think, so I normally stick to hook and line.  Pinfish are not the go to bait for sailfish but I have caught a few that didn't read the rules very well.  It is better to have something than nothing, so having a few dozen in the live well is a good thing.

In addition to these basics you can have goggle eyes, threadfin herring, blue runners, small snapper, just about anything that wiggles.  I have caught sailfish on all of them.

The reason for this post is a lot of my trips are devoted more to bait catching instead of fishing.  Catching bait is a fishing basic and I am a basic kind of guy.  It makes it easier if you know what you are looking for.

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

Porgies and Hogfish

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And I actually remembered to take some pictures.

This trip was out of Bahia Honda State Park.  The yellowtail bite was off so we hit the patches and the rock piles.  Nice weather today.

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

Conch Tiki and the Phone

(305) 304-8656

Now that things have calmed down I guess it is time for the real story behind the Communications Glitch.  My old number was for Conch Tiki, a small company originally intended to sell plastic Tiki thatch for Tiki roofing so people could have good looking Tiki buildings that didn't shed old thatch in their yards or pools and didn't catch fire and burn down their neighborhood.  Well, the thatch didn't catch on because it was plastic meaning it wasn't "All Natural", wouldn't shed or catch fire and burn like bonfire like the "real thing".  

To promote the thatch that people wouldn't buy we ran radio spots and invented a fish cleaning table to use for displays.  Since I was local, I was the radio personality for the spots which generated more fishing calls than Tiki thatch or fish cleaning table calls.  The phone that was provided for the thatch calls, (305) 395-1923 ended up becoming my default fishing phone because no one would ever called my real phone anymore.

After around 10 years of not selling anything, the plug got pulled on Conch Tiki.  I talked to the service provider and I can get that number in 45 days if I like, but there was no quick any easy transition at least from my end of things.  Since the phone was for business, I got free phone service until a couple of days ago.

So the new phone number marks the end of one era and the beginning of a new one.   I had no clue what was going to happen from one day to the next in the old one and I doubt that will change, but for era accounting purposes we have a new one anyhow. So up top is my new, maybe temporary, phone number.

Now, with that out of the way.  Michele has become an Obama Care junkie with rotor cuff surgery and lots of physical therapy visits over the past couple of months and has another visit or ten scheduled while she has met her out of pocket.  After Tuesday, Colon endoscopy day, I should be back to fishing and fixing things.

My next sorta scheduled trip is Wednesday which Windfinder says should be 5-10 out of the Northeast doing classic reef fishing out of Big Pine Key.  That will be followed up by the Christmas crews so hopefully I will get some nice Grouper Snapper pictures to post up to Jan, 1st when of course grouper closes thanks to our fearless fishing leaders.

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

Communications Glitch

There is a shift in the cellphone situation.  I have a new number (305) 304-8656 so Michele doesn't get hit with my calls.  I managed to get my phone address book transferred so I will start calling or messaging with the change.

Pardon the inconvenience, but things may stay normal for a while.  I delete the previous post and revised the side bar with the new number.  Happy Holidays!

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

Cold versus Cold

Now that the first official cold front has come through and my first official cold for a bunch of years is about finished, I am back at it though with a bit of a dragging tail.  I fished for the first time in a month with a bay side, rock piles and bridge basic 101.  After the first cold front the fish start moving to their winter accommodations but if the front comes early it is hard to tell where they are in their travels.  The bay side water temperature today was around 69.5 degrees which is in the Spanish Mackerel should be around range but they haven't arrived just yet, at least not close in the bay.  The Mangroves appear to be settled into their normal winter spots and the jacks, blue runners and crevalle are fairly thick so the bay is about ready to fire off.  There is a huge difference in what is around with a pretty small difference in temperature though.  Ballyhoo  today  seemed to stick close to a very small temperature break so we had to re-anchor just to get them into the slick.  That is kind of unusual on the bay side as far as my experience goes.  That said, plan on moving a bit more North and West to find bait.

The rock piles were a bit slower than I expected.  Not a bad bite by any means just slower than usual with the porgies on the smallish side, no lanes and the ever present it seems grouper that are close to the size limit.  We had one red that was very close to legal that managed a Palm Beach release since no one was crazy about jumping into the rain to land the fish.  There were very widely scatter showers that happened to be on top of us at the time.

The bridge was a little slow but the porgies were very respectable sized mixed in with decent Mangroves and a Hogfish.  We fished the last of the outgoing tide and there wasn't a lot of bait pushing through the bridge.  Once the ballyhoo and shrimp get thicker near the bridge the action should get more serious.

For the next few days the winds should be close to ideal in the 10 to 15 knot range which will allow a few more options.  On the reef, the deeper Yellow Tail spots should produce a King Mackerel or two with shots at anything from sails to cobia.  I am thinking a longer bay side run will also produce a king or two, possible some Spanish and potentially a cobia also.  I can't really say much for sure, but it looks like the bay side bite should be more like it was before Wilma in 2005.  Wilma churned the bay up back then and really changed the bite on a lot of closer in, less than 20 miles from the house wrecks.   So if my hunch is right, there should be some serious fish back there on some not very heavily fished spots this season.  Those of you that can remember back that far know that it was pretty awesome.  Hopefully, I will have a better report in a few days,

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 Few Labor Day Weekend Pictures

This is Jake with his first ever 'cuda.  I think it is good to get 'cudas off your bucket list early, so Jake done good.  As you can see from the background, this was accomplished at the Seven Mile Bridge.

This is the leader of the Bagwell Party with a Cero mackerel.  The Bagwell's proved to be more of a challenge.  For whatever reason, I seemed to not be able to guess right on about anything while guiding them.  This Cero and a small mess of Mangroves with some delicious Porgies for appetizers was about it.  Not one single 'cuda wanted to play with them and only bonnet head sharks hit the shark baits plus the mangrove baits.  They were good sports though and said they had a good time anyway.

I am going to post more pictures here should any more be emailed to me, but I didn't take many.  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 Hope Ya Know How to Cook

I have been busy with fishing 101 trips with the gang that took advantage of the Labor Day Weekend. Labor Day is considered the last hurrah for the Marathon restaurant "season".  So several of the local eating establishments are rolling up the sidewalks and doing other things.  Fish and fishermen don't tend to keep track of when you can wear white without getting talked about, so the closures are making it a bit more of a challenge for me to recommend eating establishments.  So if you come down to take advantage of the "off season" rates, make sure you have a pretty good collection of recipes for your catch.

Fishing wise, the ocean side looks like it is still happening but with the smaller boats my crews have we have been sticking more to the bridge and bay.  Lots of action, but you have to wade through a lot of small fish before you hook up a big one which means it is pretty easy to get caught napping.

I am supposed to get a few photos emailed to me and I will try to take a few today for a later post when I have time to go into more detail.

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

How Fishing Regulations Work

Since I am having issues with my own videos I thought this one might fill the posting void.

With the new moon right now tides are crazy high meaning the currents are a bit weird.  We had a combo fish and snorkel 1/2 day just the other day that was mainly snorkel due to the wind against the current.  Now I am back to projects with a big Labor Day week shaping up so far.

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

Boy it's Hot Out There

Since it is so hot we left the dock at 6:30 to beat the heat.  This was a fishing 101 so we didn't stay on these Yellowtail Snapper long but there were a few in the 18 inch range willing to bite.  Had to wade through a lot of barely legals though.  Mangroves were about the same, lots and lots of barely legal fish on most spots with the big ones not all that aggressive on the morning tide.  The bigger tide is this afternoon/evening so the guys will likely do better on the turn around.

We stopped to play with one large Jack Crevalle, about 15 pounds I guess, that is headed to the smoker.  Not one of my preferred fish, but smoke does wonders and they do know how to fight.

This attempt at editing a video of the Jack Crevalle isn't all that great but at least some of it seems to have uploaded.  I might work on it later.

The action on the rock piles was a little off, but a few nice porgies went in the box along with a Yellowtail.  Not a single grouper today on the rock piles and the Hogfish were short.  On the whole an okay fishing 101, but I would like to see the bigger 'tails get more aggressive so you don't have to deal with so many barely legal fish.

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

Cabo Catches

 While I have been sidelined with Doctor's visits and RV lot beautification Capt. David and the Cabo have been catching fish.  I popped down to the Marina to see what's up and they are nice Dolphin aka mahi out there biting if you look hard enough.  These nice gaffers where found in 900 foot of water pretty late in the day.  Full moons tend to make fish act funny so there is no telling if afternoon is the bite or not, it just was today.  Along with the gaffers they found plenty of legal schoolies and tons of tiny peanuts which makes the search for the bigger guys a bit more challenging.

I have to throw in a pic of owner Dick with a little bigger than normal smile.  Capt. David and I have been trying to put them on bigger fish for a while with limited success.  Now that David is healthy again and bug mania is dying down, maybe I can get a few more big boat reports.  While I am stuck beautifying, the Bonnie B and crew will be hunting tuna for the lady of the boat.  The Blackfin and Skippies may not be monsters on the line but they are slammers on the plate.

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

So what's up with Dat Free Gaffed Tuna at the Dock?

This video has gone viral on Facebook.

Keysinfonet has a short article and a better photo for the fish identification purists.  I have never gaffed a big Yellowfin Tuna in a canal, but I have seen 200 pound class Yellowfin Tuna in my Yellowtail slick in 30 foot of water and hooked a few freight trains on the reef that were likely big Yellowfin.  So the story is likely true.  I wouldn't plan a Keys trip to dock fish for Tuna or Sailfish inside Hawks Channel, but great fishing stories are common in the Keys.

A few months ago I showed a new local how to fish the bridge after work.  His first trip on his own he hooked a Wahoo twice at the bridge and managed to lose it both times.  I have also seen small sword fish on the flats plus had the meat on my thumb about burned off passing a rod with a Spanish Mackerel hooked up to a customer just when a big Marlin decided to get hungry.  That is pretty much the reason I am in the Keys, you never know what you might tangle with.

Now back to projects.

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

Katelynn Slam

Living pretty much in the tropics, tropical weather includes potential tropical storms.  Yesterday we stayed at the dock thanks to tropical weather with lots of fireworks.  Today there wasn't as much fireworks so we fished.  The Yellowtail bite sucked thanks to wind and current direction shifting during the day but luckily there are patches and rock piles with things other than Yellowtails.

Ms Katelynn seemed to be happy with her slam of Red Grouper, Hogfish and Yellowtail snapper and the action on the patches which include Triggerfish, Porkfish, Yellowtail Snapper and the ever present Grunts.

We had planned some offshore trolling but opted for the closer inshore stuff due to a very large, nasty looking black cloud.  With any luck this system will move North or West or East or any place else other than here in the next day or two.

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

PS, here is a full crew photo.

Work Versus Play

This was work this morning. Get to the boat at six, load 25 scuba tanks, take 8 divers out for three tank dives searching for bugs (spiney lobster). They limited out today. We will see what happens tomorrow.

This is what I am playing with, a dent.

A lot better just using one of those cheap glue gun dent pullers. I may turbo charge the puller to see if I can get the rest out, then maybe not. The next week will be bugging, then fishing, then doctor visits, then fishing, with a little playing mixed in most likely.

 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

Ribs are on Sale! Ribs are on Sale!

 So what the heck, sounds like time for standing pork ribs with Cuban garlic bread on the old gas grill.  I have been on light duty the past couple of days which is fine with me.  Part of the fam is down staying at Sugarloaf to do the bug thing and stopped by to pick up a few Darts for a Dolphin expedition prior to serious bugging.

I also picked up the yaks which have been out playing for a few weeks.  If you look carefully you might notice that the 375 also has new crystal clear head lamps.  Ebay can be amazing at times.  In addition to new head lamps the rear window lift gate has new gas struts and a rod rack bar so all the fishing gear fits in.  All of that for less than a hundred bucks. Once I install a new deep cycle battery and the 1200 watt inverter (60 bucks), the beater will double as a back-up generator should we get any serious storms this season.  That 1200 Watts will actually power the fridge, entertainment stuff and both ACs believe it or not.  Since I had to make the drug test run to Taveneir I got to check the beater's gas mileage which is a little over 23 mpg on the road and about 17 mpg just doing the around the island thing.

Fishing wise the Mangrove bite is still on day and night or more accurately, early morning and night, plus the tuna, dolphin and sailfish are pretty close to the reef.  That said, my next four scheduled trips are all bug related.  The first part of August is already filled with trips fishing and to the VA doctors.  Typically things die down after Labor Day so the projects will get more attention then.

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

Day Off

I fished the last few days but no pictures.  Yesterday I was too busy driving the boat to photograph the tuna, mainly skippies that came over the side or the huge flocks of birds working the mix of Tuna, Dolphin and sailfish every where from the reef to about 600 foot of water.  It changes day to day, but the ocean offshore of Marathon is quite alive with lots of critters that may want to play.

Sharks are also crashing the party so the Mutton dropping at least East of the light is not all that productive.  We did catch a genuine (American Red Snapper) which is kind of rare and a spawn Mangrove on one of the Mutton spots.  We lost to the sharks a couple of likely photogenic fish that they wanted more than we did.

My old body is a bit pissed at me at the moment so I am going to be lazy today since I have a stretch of dive and fishing trips scheduled for the next week.  Mini-season is here and I am booked mainly for the scouting trips before the 30 and 31st spiney slaughter proper.

I think I am in the running for procrastinator of the year award.  I have dabble with a few of my projects, mainly installing new head light assemblies on the 375, but  parts and/or supply delays sound like a good excuse for the bus and boat.  Since August and September, the dead of the dead months are around the corner, they may not take priority until then.

This week the plumbers are tearing up my side of the RV park and have dug a nice salt water swimming hole just in front of V20.  They will be tearing up the back side of the RV some time soon, then after the destruction I will relocate my work/hobby shop back into the back 40 where they belong.

The guys sticking with Mangroves mainly have been cleaning up the past week.  A very early AM start can produce a box full of fish and be back at the dock before 10:00 which is nice this time of year.  It is a lot easier for me to get up at 3 AM than it is to stay up to 3 AM so after the bug blast I will likely do some Mangrove expeditions.

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

Tagging the Bear

Part of being a fishing consultant which is just an old fart that has done a lot of fishing, is basic instruction in old school fishing stuff.  On a big sportfisherman that is rigged for bear there are a lot of bells and whistles that hardly ever get used.  Take those pretty Penn International 30 and 50 wides along with the big cow bell and bullet head Wahoo lures.  I had suggested to the owner that he try fishing the back side of the stream off the Cay Sal bank if he wanted to find a fish or two worthy of breaking out the heavy stuff.

Back side or other side fishing, grew popular out of Port Canaveral where fishing rocket scientists ran into fishermen wanting to tangle with Tuna.  By tweaking a high end radar properly, a fisherman could get a fairly good tuna bird target making the longer than normal trips worth the effort.  The Cabo we were fishing had all the bells and whistles only the radar couldn't quite do the birder thing.

Anywho, since we were going the back side with the old eyeballs only I asked the owner where his tag lines were for the tag line returns installed on his outrigger.  That is the subject of today's post, tagging the bear.

A tag line on an outrigger is a heavy line that you rubber band typically your out rigger line to while high speed trolling the big ugly lures you never use.  The real reason for tag lines seems to vary from marina bar to marina bar, but basically the tags reduce nuance knockdowns, set those big assed hooks in the bag ass lures you never use and reduce drop back after hook set.  So when you are trolling at around 10 knots you can enjoy so tropical adult refreshments without having to reset out rigger lines constantly.

Tag lines can be a pain in the ass, but a large part of fishing for "trophy" offshore fish is dealing with the  PITA and expensive.   Tournament quality offshore fishing isn't for the weak of heart or light of wallet.  Trolling a 35 foot Cabo at 10 knots sucks down around 10 gallons of $4.50 to $9.50 a gallon in fuel per hour with the average Mr. Big strike coming around once every 30 hours.  For that reason many elect to fish for Mr. Not-so-big and the tasty Dolphin, Tuna and Wahoo that like to break the monotony while fishing for Mr. Big.

To reduce the tag line PITA here is a link to an Australian blog with pretty pictures and a nice video or two.   What is missing though is proper Mr. Big trolling accessories. Typically, a nice mixed fruit bowl, cheese and cold cut platter with a variety of tropical adult refreshments is required to truly appreciate the elegance of "Blue Water Fishing" with the wides.   It is also nice to have a token young stud to clear lines and wire fish.

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

Different Days

 Since my last office view picture didn't turn out all that great here is a new one.  That is a pretty fair size patch of Sargasso Weed.

 I sometimes get request to swim with the dolphins.  My version doesn't include Flipper.

This is what the dolphin look like going on ice.

I don't have any pictures of yesterday.  Why?  Because it inhaled deeply.  Today though the fish bit and we even bailed schoolies.  I did see a few large fish but not behind the boat.  Still, if you are looking to fill the freezer, today you could have yesterday not so much.  That is just the way the bite has been since the last full moon.

Tomorrow I get to drive to Key Largo to take a piss test so I can mate on a boat as a favor.  That is your government in action folks.  Let's make the minimum wage guys pay through the nose so some warm and fuzzy idiots can think they have helped to save the world from something.  Why am I bitchin"?  It is supposed to be a random drug testing program.  The owners and operators should bear the cost burden not some schmuck trying to be nice.


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

Weak in Review

DOB is definitely catching up with me.  Fished the 6th on Lady Catherine then had an afternoon quick tour with a new Fishing 101 customer.  Then fished the 7th on Lady Catherine, the 9th was a Fishing 101, then an AM half day on the 11th followed by a 6:00PM to midnight snapper trip.  What would be  a normal week for local captains has my tail dragging.

Fishing was so so.  Lots of fish but getting the ones that the customers want is a bit of a challenge  with all the blue runners, peanuts and assorted pest fish.  Then last nigh,t along with the snapper, came a shark of considerable size that was hungry.  Instead of limiting out and getting in early we had for fight for a little over half of the limit.  In the dark and fairly rough seas, we managed to lose several "trophy" fish to the bottom, tangled lines and the swim platform.  The two customers did get a memorable fishing expedition though with a dozen pretty fat snapper and sunset photos for evidence.

Since I may have bitten off a bit more than I can chew, anyone with a USCG masters license and a reliable alarm clock can apply for assistant part time Lady Catherine bus driver so I can have a longer recovery period.    The pay is not great and you have to work your butt off, but that is just part of living the dream :)

It believe that I will be totally lazy today until some of the throbbing subsides.  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

Office View

When I took this picture I thought the weed line would show better.  Guess not.  Any who, this a view from one of my current office windows aboard the Lady Catherine.   We ran a couple of dolphin trips ending yesterday.  The crew had a good time with action even though we didn't find any slammers.  With all the small dolphin, Little Tunny and various Jacks, the birds are not much help locating the monsters.  Even in close though there is normally enough legal fish to make the trip worth while.

I also had an audition on a 50 foot Bertram needing a more regular Captain.  I am not really looking for a permanent big boat gig so if you happen to know anyone that is let them know that there are a couple of slots open here in Marathon.

Despite my most sincere desire to not commit to night fishing trips since there is always that possible day booking, I will be doing just that if the weather holds in a few days.  An AM reef followed by a 6:00 PM midnight snapper trip.  I am getting way to old to do that very often.  As it is I had a full day offshore followed by a two hour boating 101 the day before yesterday.   So projects are starting to back up while fishing takes the lead.

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

Wheels

 This is the new to me set of wheels in case anyone is wondering.  I doubt that I will be getting that attached to this Taurus, but for temporary wheels and a shot at making a little cash it is interesting.

It will also lug a bunch of fishing and/or other project junk around.  Since it also has a roof rack some parts of my life will become easier.

Not much is going to change on this vehicle for a while but I can see a new pair of head lamp lens, a rod storage system and a kayak rack in the not too distant future.

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